A Fall From Grace
by TwistedFortune
Summary: Something buried deep inside of Cody, hidden far underneath his guise of optimism and confidence, has suddenly resurfaced and torn it's way out after the GwunCan kiss. Tired of the world beating him down again and again, Cody is determined to fight back and win the million in his own way. But how far has Cody fallen? Is there any going back? Or is this the new him? -[See CH 8]-
1. Prologue: Disarm You With a Smile

**"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."**  
 **-Mark Twain**

* * *

 **Prologue: Disarm You With a Smile**

* * *

A young Cody lies in his bed, his room pitch black save for the small amounts of sunlight peaking in from the blinds. His hair is disheveled and he buries his face in his hands.

"Jesus _CHRIST_ , would you just SHUT THE _FUCK_ up already!?"

Outside his room, his parents were engaged in another one of their epic arguments. Shouting was heard, and mixed in between the shouting was the sound of glass breaking and things being smashed up, and he began to lightly sob. He looked up at the window through his tired, teary eyes, his face flushed and gleaming with tears. How he wished he could get up and just run straight to that window, release the hatches, and dive out into the freedom of the world.

No one would even know he was gone - his parents barely acknowledge his existence, and the people at school would not care, he was unwanted, and he desperately wanted to be free. He could do that right now if he would only garner up the will.

But he knew, oh yes he knew, that he would never be able to do that.

For one, his room was on the top floor of his house, the third story to be precise. Yes, Cody's house was big. Fancy. He was apart of a rich family. How true the saying "Money doesn't buy happiness" really is. He heard another crash behind his door, and more yelling.

Secondly, where would he go? He was only 11 years old. There is no where for him to go out there in the world other than to sit in this prison, scared and alone and dying on the inside from all the neglect he had receieved over the years, the abuse taken both by his peers and by his parents piling up on the inside and collapsing in on his confidence and what little character he had on the inside, leaving behind only a broken young child.

The shouting outside his room got louder, as it usually did during these kinds of arguments his parents had, and he covered his ears with his hands and began to sob uncontrollably, squeezing his head tightly.

He began to shake violently as his sobs soon turned to horrible wails as he succumbed to the feelings of dread and hopelsesness, and it is in this state of hopelessness and dread that three facts suddenly registered deep in his psyche.

 **Number 1 -** his parents are arguing in the den.  
 **Number 2 -** next to the den was his father's study, which he knew contained a safe with the combination "3244".  
 **Number 3 -** in this safe was a loaded Remington 1911, which his father told him about in the event that a robber was to enter their home while he was alone as a result of his parents going out on one of their many prolonged business trips.

Immediately upon realizing number 3, he ceased crying and felt a strange feeling wash over him, his sadness and despair quickly becoming replaced with this... Strange, dark, morbid feeling. It was like he was in a hyper state of awareness.

His parents were still yelling, and it seemed to be heating up as he heard more crashes and booms, and he began to think...

They were distracted - distracted with their battle in their own little Hell. It would not take much effort to sneak into his father's study, go over to that safe, grab the weapon inside of it... Go into the den... Take aim... And...

He violently shook his head, as if trying to shake his head of these morbid, horrible thoughts.

What was he thinking? He couldn't do that... He couldn't _KILL_ his parents. No matter how horrible they were or anyone was to him, he could never willingly kill them. That'd be just... Horrible. He couldn't do it...

Even with this truth in his head, the thought still stuck to him, and it slowly receded into the back of his mind, as he began sobbing again.

This couldn't go on... he could not stay in this state forever.

When his parents weren't home - he was completely alone, left to his own devices, unless he was at school, and even there he was alone. He was the weird kid there. The quiet kid. The kid who everyone liked to whale on because he lacked the strength to fight back.

And when his parents WERE home...

He heard the yelling reached its breaking point as they finally rose to levels of horrible loudness, levels so loud that had he lived close to neighbors, they would have undoubtedly heard and called the police.

God... How tired of this he was. How tired he was of sitting alone in his room locked away, stuck in his own lonely miserable state of constant sadness.

He wanted to fight back against those who made his life Hell - wanted to fight back like you wouldn't believe, but he couldn't. Everything he had tried had failed and exploded in his face, and all his ideas seemed to explode in his face as well. It seemed he was destined to constantly be alone and trapped.

He had tried it all: physically fighting the bullies at school, meeting them head on, staying quiet in the back of the classroom, and that was only school. Here? At home? He had no options like that. He was only able to submit to his loneliness while his parents were away, or submit to total despair as he listened to the war between his parents wage while he stayed locked in his room.

But then... He thought of something...

He was not just fighting against bullies, or his parents, he was fighting against the WORLD itself. The world wanted to beat him down into the ground. But what if instead of submitting to the world, he fought it in another way?

What if instead of folding or caving in on himself, he fought back against the world not with sadness or despair, but the opposite? What if he fought back... With a smile? And with a guise of optimism?

Yeah... The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to ring true and make sense. Fight the world which wanted to make him submit, and do it not with weapons or with words, but with a simple smile and optimism.

Maybe with time - he would even begin to believe his mask of optimism.

He stopped sobbing, and he began to wipe his face of tears, as he rose out of his bed and shakingly walked over to his door, his heart feeling as if it had dropped into the pits of his stomach.

The yelling outside continued, and he stepped out of his room into the hall - where he heard the yelling increase in volume, only he did not recoil and go back inside, or scream or cry...

He stepped forward.

A smile plastered on his face.

* * *

 **And there we go - first chapter of "A Fall From Grace", and unfortunately it's a prologue...**

 **So there's no way to say this, and if you haven't figured out by now, then I guess I'll just break it to you straight and save myself from writing a large Author's Note: this story is going to be very dark.**

 **This story is pretty much going to be about Cody, the REAL Cody, the Cody which has been buried under a guise of confidence and optimism breaking free to tackle the world. It's going to be dark. It involves Cody turning into something dark. Becoming a bad guy pretty much. Although I'll leave alot of room for you all to interpret his character as bad or justified.**

 **I hope you all enjoy this story - as I've had this idea for some time.**

 **I think that's all I have to say for this story, but a real quick thing I wanted to touch upon:**

 **this chapter's name is taken from the song "Disarm", by Smashing Pumpkins. If you haven't heard of that song yet, I highly recommend you go take a look, as it pretty much perfectly describes the Cody I want to portray in this story.**

 **That's all, see you next chapter, where things really begin!**

 **-Twisted**


	2. Chapter 1: The Shell Breaks

**-6 Years later-**

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THIS..." Courtney screamed, enraged. In a flash, the mochoa teen charged at Gwen, and was held back only by Sierra, and she kicked and screamed, her fists balled. "LET ME GO!" she shouted.

"Duncan?" Cody looked down at the ground, feeling his heart break. "Duncan!?" He repeated once more, the name causing his heart to drop even more. "I can't believe it." he muttered.

"Somebody say my name?"

Speaking of the devil himself, Duncan came walking up next to Cody, who chuckled upon seeing his costume. "What's with the outfit?"

Without hesitation, Cody's fist connected with his eye, sending him spiraling to the ground into an unconscious heap.

His mind didn't even register the fact that he had just knocked out Duncan with a fist to the face, as he was struggling to not pass out himself. How could this happen? Why did this happen? Every single time, when he least expected it, something horrible happened to him...

He felt his optimism and confidence begin to reside slightly, and he felt his old self underneath it, as cold and dead as it had always been, the side of him which he had buried long ago underneath a pile of optimism.

He felt naseous.

Tyler began to charge, eager to finish the challenge and take the win for his team, and he was suddenly snapped out of his depressed haze and back into reality when he saw what was happening: Tyler was going to win, and when he won, his team would no doubt vote out Gwen.

Cody pushed all doubts out of his mind and felt adrenaline surge through his veins as he prepared to run as fast as he could, when Courtney, who was now a little calmer, saw this.

"No. Stay put, Cody." Courtney commnaded, much to Sierra's confusion.

"But wouldn't that make us lose..." She looked at Courtney, eyeing her suspiciously before a light bulb went off in her head. "Oh... Yeah, stay put honey."

Courtney coldly looked over to Gwen. "You are OUT!"

Heather chimed in. "She's got my vote."

Cody watched this exchange and shook his head, conflicted as to what to do, knowing that every second spent thinking about this was a second Tyler was getting closer to the finish line, and that meant closer to Gwen being voted off. But strangely, that didn't bother him anymore, and it made him feel afraid slightly.

"To Hell with it..." He muttered, as he broke into a mad dash, and he almost immediately began to feel winded. Cody was never much for running or exercise of any kind, and now he had to catch up to an athlete. Albeit an unlucky one.

Speaking of unlucky, Tyler apparently mis stepped and tripped, falling into the dirt, his face connecting hard with the ground with an "oof".

Cody picked up the pace and charged past him, and then began to flap his "wings" as hard as he could, faster and faster, until every fiber in his body began to ache with exhaustion, and it looked as if his wings were falling off as the wax was melting in the Sun, but somehow he managed to grab the medal right as his wings came apart and he went falling to the ground.

"NO!" He heard Courtney shout. "DAMN YOU, CODY!"

"Yes, good on you Cody!" Chris showed up out of nowhere. "Looks like Team Amazon wins the tie-breaker! And that means Team I am really really really super hot is going to the elimination ceremony."

Cody phased out again, both from exhaustionand shock, and he layed there.

 _She kissed Duncan._

* * *

Courtney's cries could be heard all the way from the confessional to First Class.

Cody rubbed the arm he used to knock out Duncan with a blank expression on his face as he struggled with the strange feelings he was having. He couldn't feel what he was before. He couldn't feel his optimism. It was like his shell really HAD been broken. It had been stepped on before, granted, but now it seemed to just be gone entirely and he felt himself. His true self. And it frightened him.

Sierra sat next to him, gushing at him over how he knocked out Duncan, unaware of the inner turmoil he was feeling. For once, Cody payed her no mind as he continued to rack his brain on all of the things he was feeling.

What was he now? Everyone had grown to know Cody, but not this Cody. The Cody everyone knew was the one with a smile despite all odds, the one who was always optimistic despite the world beating him down, but he felt like he couldn't do that anymore. Now, he didn't know how to act. Without optimism and a smile, what was he?

How did this happen? When Gwen chose Trent over him, it never did this to him. It made him feel bad a little, sure, but it never destroyed him like this.

But then there was that... Destroyed him? It was weird. Very weird. Cody felt different, but he didn't feel destroyed... It was like he felt more whole... Without his shell there, it felt like he could finally see the world without any tinted goggles. It was frightening. He finally had to see the world for the horrible place it was. There was no hiding or denial for him anymore.

He shook his head, how he wished he could go back to living in his shell.

But he knew, there was no going back.

He didn't feel destroyed or broken, but he felt... Cold. Colder. He felt like he was seeing the world for what it was... Did that mean he was ready to face it? What did that mean?

And then... He remembered how he punched Duncan, finally it registered.

He felt... Pride in his chest. How good it had felt to punch him and see him go crumpling to the ground. Victory.

What was he becoming? He was taking pride in hurting someone... He was a monster... But... Duncan was a horrible person though, wasn't he? He went behind Courtney's back and kissed Gwen, without any regard for the damage it would cause. He had hurt people, probably in worse ways than he hurt Gwen and Courtney... So was it really wrong? To take pride in destroying someone who was bad?

Duncan was an asshole, a horrible asshole.

Immediately, he recoiled.

What... What was that? Where did that come from? He just called Duncan a horrible asshole and a horrible person... He had never thought of someone like that before. He always used to try to see the best in people, to show kindness... But that was his shell, then, wasn't it?

Maybe that thought... Maybe it came from HIM. The real him. Maybe that was it. Maybe this was him. His shell was gone, and now all that was left inside of him was Cody. The Cody he had buried. Somehow, he felt like he could breath.

He originally had donned his optimistic mask and smile to fight those who wanted to hurt him, but it seemed that he started to hide inside of it... And now it was no more.

Sierra, apparently becoming a little lonely and tired of being ignored, suddenly grabbed Cody and forced him into a hug, but Cody continued to ignore her as he lost himself in thought.

* * *

What would he do now? What was there left for him here? There was nothing. He had been broken again, his facade has fallen, his shell broken, and now his "true" self has been released and now he was as unhappy as ever. What could he possibly do here? And then, he decided almost immediately...

He decided... He'd win.

But win for what? What could he possibly gain from winning the show? He didn't need the money - his family was rich, and even though they ignored him, they still threw him a bone every now and then. Fame? He didn't care for fame. Fame attracted all sorts of attention, both good and bad, and the "good" kind of attention usually was in the form of people like Sierra... What was this? Why did he want to win so badly now? He came to the show to get friends originally, but now that that's all exploed in his face like everything usually does, there is almost no reason to stay - he could just drop out right now and be done with it...

But yet he didn't want to drop out. For some reason, Cody felt more driven than ever to win the show. It was strange.

Cody rubbed his temples as his mind raced and worked, trying to make sense of these internal contradictions and conflictions boiling inside of him. He could not figure out the answer... Why did he want to win? Why?

* * *

 **So I did something different this chapter.**

 **I wrote the ending first, and then worked my way up. I dunno. I just had the end scene circling in my head for a while and I wanted to get it out I guess. I think it turned out pretty good, and it was a fun way to organize the chapter. It's kinda like John Romero - the guy who worked on DOOM. He always made his maps starting from the ending and working his way up to the beginning so he would get warmed up and the player would see the best parts of the map in the beginning...**

 **Or something.**

 **This really wasn't even a chapter at all, it was more or less just a chapter focusing entirely on Cody's feelings. Next chapter will be the Ex Files, and it will be there the whole shinding will get started, and we see what Cody, the REAL Cody, does, and how he will change the show's history.**

 **If you don't like this chapter - I don't blame you, but I really wanted to start this. I'm so excited for Ex Files. I have so much stuff to do and many ideas to implement. I already have the aftermath planned out too. Lots of stuff for the future of this story.**

 **I'm really interested in seeing what you guys think of this so far, as this is where we see dark Cody arrising.**


	3. Chapter 2: Manipulation and Planning

_A young Cody sits in his desk, a pencil in his hand, hastily jotting down notes off the chalkboard into his notebook. The teacher stood at the front of the class room, open book in hand._

 _The classroom is silent, and a bead of sweat forms on his brow and drops onto his page. Why was it so hot in here all of a sudden? He began to shake slightly, and he stopped writing, taking time to pick at his finger tips, and then took a deep breath, before continuing his writing._

 _Half way through a paragraph, he stopped writing; his face pale, his heart beating quick. He placed the pencil down and looked around, and then his eyes settled on an older student sitting in the corner of the room. He had long, grimy, dirty brown hair, an old greaser jacket covering his school uniform, and he had a scowl on his face, as he aggressively scribbled into his notebook._

 _Gulping, Cody shuddered while watching him, and then the boy suddenly looked up, staring right at Cody, and the scowl was replaced with an eager grin._

 _Quickly, Cody turned back around, grabbed his pencil, and then continued writing in his notebook, albeit more shakily and quick, when finally the bell began to ring. The teacher at the front of the class shut his book and cleared his throat before speaking, "Class dismissed. You'll resume note-taking next monday. Have a nice weekend." The teacher then walked out into the hall, leaving the students who began to pack their bags quickly, eager for the weekend that awaited them._

 _One by one all of the students left the room, while Cody sat still in his chair, eyes closed, feeling the dread and horrible anxiety caused by what was going to be happening next. "Hey, Cody..." Cody opened his eyes and his heart skipped a beat at the voice behind him. Slowly, he turned around and faced him._

 _"Y-Yes Chad?"_

 _The same boy from before stood there, an eager look on his face, and Cody offered him his trademark gap-toothed smile. "We need to... Talk outside." Cody saw a smile tug at the corners of his mouth after saying this, and it made Cody all the more nervous._

 _They stood still for a moment, before Chad suddenly furrowed his brow. "Now!" he roared._

 _This time, Cody obeyed, slowly he got out of his seat, and Chad walked over to the door and waited on him. "Oh God..." he thought, "this is not going to end well..." Cody still had his trademark smile, as he was lead out into the halls by Chad. The two walked through the crowded halls in silence, with Chad occasionally glancing behind him, probably to make sure Cody was still following, which he was, and as usual, he had his smile on his face._

 _After what felt like ages, each step adding to the fear Cody was feeling inside, they finally exited the School through the back, and were in the parking lot. There, three boys were standing, each one of them smirking when they saw Cody._

 _"Hey Cody..." One of the boys stepped forward, dropping his backpack behind him on the ground._

 _Cody tried his best to maintain his smile, which was now turning into a nervous grin, and sweat poured down his face. "H-hey Johnny..."_

 _Johnny shoved Cody into Chad, who immediately caught him. "I'm going to die..." he thought, and then Chad threw him to the ground._

 _Cody made contact with the pavement with a pained "oof", and the boys wasted no time, as they surrounded Cody and began to mercilessly stomp on him. Squirming and screaming in pain, Cody tried to get up, shield his face, curl up into a ball, anything to stop the assault, but it didn't halt. It never did halt. He was helpless, made to be their punching bag for as long as he lived._

 _The boys laughed as they watched him squirm and cry, one of them kicking him in the ribs, causing Cody to cough up blood, and then finally, after a few more stomps and kicks, the assault ceased, leaving Cody bloodied and bruised lying on the pavement._

 _"That was fun..." Chad said, panting._

 _Johnny chuckled, "sure was. Hey - see you at my house at 7?" Chad and Johnny and the other two boys all grouped up and walked away casually chatting as if nothing happened, leaving Cody behind._

 _After what felt like hours to Cody, slowly, through grit teeth and pained groans, rose to his feet and began to limp away, a pained smile on his face._

* * *

The plane shuddered violently as Cody stirred awake, still trapped in Sierra's suffocating embrace. He estimated that he had only gotten about 4 or so hours of sleep, yet he felt wired, energized. He slowly freed himself from Sierra's grasp, taking careful movements as to not stir her. The stalker muttered something along the lines of "Cody-kins..." and then fell silent, causing Cody to cringe slightly before sneaking away to the confessional.

On the way to the confessional, he saw Gwen sleeping soundly on the bench, and looked at her longingly, before shaking his head. She's horrible. he told himself. She broke Courtney's heart, and mine. And that's not all the horrible things she's done...

He shook his head at her disapprovingly even though she couldn't see it, and then looked around First Class and noticed that Courtney and Heather were gone.

Quietly, he slid out of First Class and made it to the confessional, taking note that it was still night outside.

* * *

 **-Confessional Cam(C.C)**

 ***Cody appears, fidgeting anxiously with his fingers, looking around the quiet, empty room, before clearing his throat.***

"I'm done." He declared.

 ***He closes his eyes, sitting in silence for a few moments, appearing to collect himself, before opening his eyes and looking into the camera with cold eyes.***

"I'm done being the world's guinea pig... It ends now."

 ***He rubs his hands together, shutting his eyes again and breathing slowly, before opening his eyes and looking back into the camera***

"I have been used, abused, stepped on, all manner of horrible pain has been inflicted on me but NO more. I've been used and then thrown away even by those I thought were my friends. Back in TDI for example - I got Gwen together with Trent, not for anything but to make her happy, and she just ignored me. I got mauled by a damn BEAR, and she was not concerned... Actually, no one on that damn island was concerned. The only concern I found was at Playa, when I got VOTED off. Speaking of which, I got voted off by her almost immediately after setting her and Trent up. Wow. Great friend there. And that's only GWEN. I've been ignored and hurt by EVERYONE ON THIS SHOW. Where has everyone been while I have been HARASSED by Sierra? Oh but no - everyone suddenly cares when I try to get rid of her though! Like I'M the bad one. Well you know what, you assholes? NO MORE!" he roared.

 ***He scowls, breathing slowly for a while, before looking into the camera again***

"I am done" he repeated. "The first thing I am going to do... Is WIN. I'm going to WIN this show. To Hell with it all. I'm going to WIN. I HAVE to."

 ***He rubbed his temples, sighing.***

"I am going to show not only everyone on this plane, but everyone who has ever known me just what I'm capable of doing..."

 ***He turns and walks out of the confessional.***

 **End Confessional Cam(C.C)-**

* * *

Meanwhile back in the cockpit, a certain host watches the confessional cam with a satisfied, sadistic smile. "Man... Looks like something's got into short-stuff. What a speech." He chuckled. "I can't wait to see what he's gonna do... Just when I thought I lucked out with the whole GwunCan kiss making some drama and getting me ratings, now I got this! I think I'll advertise this episode as: 'Revenge of the Codemeister'."

"Yeah, looks like the world's finally bit him on the ass a little too much." Chef chimed in with an amused tone, as he piloted the plane.

Chris did an excited fist pump, his usual sadistic grin appearing as he screamed "Woo-hoo!", much to the pilot's chagrin.

* * *

Cody grunted as he crouched down into the small compartment of the plane, and sat uncomfortably against the wall. Not the best place on the plane to be alone, but it would have to do.

Who was to go first? No - more importantly - who could he use as allies? Who was immediately accessible to him?

Almost immediately he counted Sierra as ally number one, and he felt his heart sink slightly when he realized he'd have to put up with her shenanigans if it meant keeping her as an ally and a vote. He frowned slightly upon thinking of her as nothing more than a "vote", but pushed all negative thoughts away as he continued his thinking. Ally number two... Gwen comes to mind. Gwen and Cody were already... Friends...

Or atleast... She regarded HIM as a friend.

Cody considered her a friend too, until he remembered back to all the times she had hurt him, ignored him... He even distinctly remembered her telling him a while back how they didn't need him on the team... _Well, we'll see, Gwen._ he thought bitterly. _We'll see just how far someone as "useless" as I can go..._ And with that, he returned to planning...

He could probably manage to convince her to vote for someone, but then he immediately realized the current problems with that: Gwen was hated universally by not only her team, but by literally everyone else in the game, and he didn't particularly like her anymore either. Even if she somehow managed to make it to the merge, whenever that was, she'd be instantly targeted.

That, and her and Duncan would ally with each other immediately... But could that be beneficial to him? If he got Gwen in an alliance with Sierra, Duncan could come along too... But no that wouldn't work - having Sierra and Gwen in the same alliance would probably explode in his face, even if he managed to convince Sierra to lighten up on her. He couldn't take the risk. Plus, Duncan was a rebellious punk. His loyalty was as good as dirt, Courtney was proof enough alone of that.

So ally number 2 would not be Gwen... That left Heather and Courtney. Heather he pushed aside for later, but Courtney... Right now, Courtney was Hell-bent on getting Gwen voted out, and he theorized that Courtney would probably go to any lengths to do that, even going as far as to losing challenges for them. He also took into consideration the fact that she was probably emotionally vulnerable right now - and that meant susceptible to being manipulated.

Once again, he cringed at how calculated he had become. Was this always how he was before he got buried underneath the piles of fake optimism? With Gwen, he had the excuse that she had hurt him on numerous occasions and showed how she didn't really care for him, not even as a teammate. He sighed, before once again pushing it all aside. Eventually he'd have to think about all of this, but as always, now was not the time for that.

So Sierra, and Courtney. Two allies.

And then, there's Heather.

Threat number one.

Heather had constantly shown over the course of Total Drama how manipulative she was and resourceful, easily managing to climb up the ladder in Total Drama Island and go somewhat far in Action, and she had somehow managed to make it this far in World Tour. She could potentially ruin everything he was putting into motion. He'd have to eliminate her as soon as he possibly could. She could make a very valuable ally, but the risk was too great.

So... Getting Courtney to his side. He could probably find her, talk to her, comfort her, and reassure her that he understands how she feels, and then try to make her feel like he's on her side, and that he'll vote off Gwen with her. That would be a pretty big step in gaining her trust and friendship. From there, he could easily convince her and Sierra to vote off Heather, and then after those two threats are gone, continue winning challenges until the merge occurred.

Speaking of the merge...

He'd have to come up with a plan for increasing his alliance so he could remove threats after the merge. Who would be viable for joining? Owen was a safe bet, Tyler... Well, Tyler was Tyler, and Duncan...

He scowled.

Duncan. Duncan would probably survive post-merge... Or maybe he could try to get Duncan to go before the merge... He pondered this for a moment before pushing it aside for later, and then continued on to the next teammate: Alejandro.

Something was very strange about Alejandro. Very off. He didn't really know anything about him, other than he was strong and could pose a potential threat to him, or be a good ally. He'd have to pay attention to him, and maybe try to talk to him. Figure him out.

In the meantime, objectives: Get Courtney in on an alliance, get Owen in on an alliance, boot Heather, boot Duncan, and go from there.

He nodded to himself, satisfied with how it all came out, and then a smirk spread across his face.

He was going to win.

* * *

The plane began to shake and shudder, and Gwen stirred in her sleep. The goth yawned, feeling the dream she was having slipping away as she awoke. When she opened her eyes, she groggily looked around and saw that she and a (sleeping) Sierra were the only ones in First Class, and then immediately remembered everything that had happened yesterday.

The fighting with her teammates, the destruction of her and Courtney's relationship, the kiss between her and Duncan...

She felt her heart skip a beat upon thinking of Duncan, and a small smile appeared on her face. She finally got with Duncan! But... At the cost of Courtney, and everyone hating her...

Well, almost everyone. There was still Cody.

She was probably going to get voted out this challenge, because there was no way they could continue winning with the state their team was in now with what she had done... But did she feel guilty about it? No. Why should she? Courtney was horrible to Duncan, and they were both unhappy and in a bad relationship. If anything she had done them a favor. And now she was happy as well.

She then thought about Cody... The boy had somehow managed to save the day for her, and stop her from being eliminated last challenge. It sucked that everyone hated her now, but atleast she still had Cody and Duncan with her. If she managed to make it post-merge, Cody and Duncan and her could probably team up and go to the final three. Then they could boot Cody, and then either Duncan or her could win, and then split the winnings... Oh, but giving Cody some too of course.

It sounded like a pretty good plan. But how would she make it to the merge? Maybe Cody had some ideas.

Gwen stretched and with a final yawn, she rose from her seat and set off to find where Cody had gone.

* * *

It was still dark outside when Cody left the compartment, and he wasn't sure how long it would be until the next challenge occurred. _May as well find Courtney..._ he thought to himself, before setting off down the hall. _Finding her should be easy, just listen for the cries._

As he rounded the corridor to First Class, the doors slid open and Gwen stepped out, and greeted him with a smile, and Cody pushed back a scowl and returned the greeting with a friend gap-toothed grin.

 _Great... I would have hoped I could just do everything without having to talk to her..._ He thought to himself as she stepped up to him.

"Hey, Cody." She said, and Cody replied with a curt nod. "Can we speak somewhere privately?"

"Uh..." _Time is wasting, hurry up and get this out of the way._ he told himself. "Sure."

Gwen lead him down to the cargo hold, shutting the door behind them once Cody had stepped into the closed in darkness. In the corner of his eye, Cody could have swore he saw some quick movement in the shadows, like something scurrying away to a far off nook in the room, but he brushed it off as being a mouse. He had more important things to worry about. Like what Gwen wanted from him.

Gwen took a seat on a box, and Cody sat across from her, the two sitting in silence for a few minutes before Cody cleared his throat.

"So uh... What'd you want?"

She raised a curious eyebrow at him, and Cody thought to himself: _God, just get on with it. Quit wasting my time._

"Well..." She began. "I wanted to talk about getting you in on an alliance with Duncan and I."

 _Oh of course you do... I should have anticipated this._

"Well sure." he said through his teeth. "Sounds good to me. Maybe I can even convince Sierra to get in on it."

Gwen gave him a warm smile. "Cool. Thanks, Cody. I can always rely on you." She gave Cody a hug, and Cody hesitantly returned it.

Quickly they broke the hug, and Gwen continued. "Speaking of which, do you know of any ways I can stay in the game until the merge?"

 _And there it is. Back to yourself. Not a single concern for me or the other people you hurt. How horrible._ He pushed back another scowl, and stifled his inner rage.

"Well..." He couldn't help but let his distate, but she seemed to not pick up on it as she watched him think. "I'm not sure honestly. Last time I managed to keep you in the game by winning us the challenge single handedly at the last moment. I'm not sure if I can do it again, but it depends on the challenge of course."

Gwen didn't seem entirely satisfied with the answer, to which Cody picked up on and thought: _well what the Hell did you expect me to say? "oh yeah Gwen, I'll definitely win you all the challenges by myself to keep you in the game."_

"We need to think of something..." She murmured as her smile fell off her face and she seemed to be lost in thought.

 _Uh no, YOU need to think of something. This isn't my battle. You were the one who screwed everything up, and now you're trying to drag me down with you._

Cody continued smiling at her as she stood there thinking, every second passing making him more and more agitated on the inside, but he continued to look at her, and finally she shook her head.

"I guess we'll both just have to try to win on our own. You can get Sierra to help out can't you?"

 _Wow. And now she wants to use Sierra through me._

"Of course."

She smiled again. "I guess that'll have to do... Thanks Cody, you're a true friend."

She turned and walked out of the cargo hold, leaving him alone for a few seconds, and once he heard the door shut his smile dropped and was replaced with an angry scowl.

"How selfish... Not even a "how are you holding up" or "how do you feel about all this", some friend you turned out to be." He said aloud bitterly.

He shook his head, trying to calm down. He didn't know how much time he had now to find Courtney, and he was angry. He would have to push his feelings aside and focus on the objective at hand.

If anything, that conversation with Gwen only re-enforced his plan: Gwen would go first.

* * *

 **-Confessional Cam(C.C)**

 ***Gwen walks into the confessional, a self-assured look on her face, she takes a seat and looks into the camera.***

"Well that went alot better than expected. If I can just make it past the merge now, I'll have an alliance... Cody seemed a little strange... Probably just a little beat up about Duncan and I's kiss..."

 ***She blushes and looks off into space for a moment***

"I need to go find Duncan..." She muttered.

 ***She rises up and walks out of the confessional***

 ***Cody walks into the confessional, adjusting his shirt slightly, before sitting down with a blank expression on his face, which quickly drops into an angry scowl.***

"Seriously? He roared. "She kisses that asshole without any regard for anyone around her, and then she has the nerve to try to USE ME? She didn't even care to see if I was alright or anything! There is no question about it - she's going home after the next challenge. I don't care what it takes."

 ***He storms out of the confessional.***

 **End Confessional Cam(C.C)-**

* * *

Cody stalked through the halls for about 20 or so minutes, listening for any sign of Courtney, and then finally he heard something - a quiet sob. Had there been any noise at all on the plane other than the humming of the engines, he would have probably not heard it.

He stopped dead in his tracks, focusing on his surroundings, waiting for another sound.

Then, he heard it again - it was coming from down the hall, in the engine room to the left.

He silently snuck over to the open doorway, and peaked in, and there she was, leaning up to some engine machinery - Courtney.

She had definitely seen better days. She was sitting up against the wall, her face flushed red, her eyes watery, her hair ragged. Cody felt a slight tinge of sympathy for her, before shaking his head. _None of that._ He told himself. _She gets no sympathy from me. After all, when was the last time she said anything nice to me?_

He didn't know exactly how to begin. He had never been a speaker, and comforting a girl was something he had never done before either. If his old self was in this position, he'd probably try to do something stupid, like sneak up to her and snake an arm around her, a big dumb grin on his face, and say "hey babe... It's ok... The Codemeister's gotcha..." to which she would probably respond by slamming her elbow into his crotch and scream in his face.

He thought for a moment, before clearing his throat, as if announcing his presence to her. She looked over at him and scowled. "What?" she barked. "Can't I just be left **_ALONE_**?"

Cody held his hands up infront of him defensively, as if saying "calm down, I don't want any trouble."

"Hey hey hey... I just wanted to talk."

She let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, talk?" she put emphasis on the 'talk', "you mean... Try to get inside my pants now that Gwenny's off the market?" she scoffed.

The old Cody would have felt a little offput, but not this Cody. Cody stood defiantly.

"Actually, she's what I wanted to talk to you about. I want to help you get her out of here."

That seemed to arouse her attention, and she looked over at him, her gaze softening slightly. "What?" She questioned. "Why would YOU want her gone? I thought you were in love with her. I thought you were her puppy. Afterall, you did win her the challenge to keep her on."

He ignored the jab at his prior affections for Gwen, and continued. "That was just a spur of the moment... I'm not in love with her. Not anymore. I can't believe I liked her. I could never like someone who would willingly hurt her friends like this."

Courtney sighed sadly, wiping her tears with her arm. "I'm not hurt... I'm just... I'm fine."

Cody stepped into the room, not bothering to be cautious. "Court, it's ok to feel hurt... She hurt me too..." He said softly, standing close to her, but not daring to sit down next to her on the floor. Careful manipulation was the key to winning her. He'd have to play on her vulnerabilities. Right now she feels betrayed, hurt, and alone.

 _So far so good_ , he told himself, _I just have to keep this up._

"How'd she hurt you? You weren't even together with her." She remarked callously.

Cody sighed. "Gwen was my first love. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen." he said truthfully. "I would have done anything for her... I came off a little too strong on her, and by the time I realized it - it was too late for me to repair any damages I did to what was between us... So I did all I could do to make her happy..."

He paused, thinking for a moment.

"Even after I set her up with Trent. She still acted like a giant jerk. She never gave me the time of day. I can't tell you how many times I came to her not as some admirer, but as a friend, only for her to shoo me away. And that's not even counting the fact that I got mauled by a BEAR, and she didn't show any concern. Not even a goodbye when I got sent off..." He couldn't help but let bitterness seep into all of his words, and Courtney watched him, all hardness leaving her gaze as she watched him. "Not only that, but I can't tell you how many times she's HIT me..."

"I gave so much for her... And got nothing in return... Do you want to know what she just tried to do, not even 30 minutes ago?" He looked at her, and she continued listening, which Cody took as a 'yes'.

"She tried to USE me, and my... Attachment to Sierra. Tried to get me in on an alliance with her, just to further herself in the game. She didn't care about what she had done at all. Just that she got with Duncan and could stay in the game." He shook his head. "She's selfish."

He finally finished, and this time he slid down next to Courtney.

"I could never love someone who did that... Much less even think of as a friend." He looked over at her. "So believe me Court when I say that you aren't the only one who got hurt by her. I want her to be gone just as much as you. And I'm not trying to make it seem like my pain is greater than yours, because you were the one who really had their heart broken. I only got ignored and stabbed in the back slightly. You got your boyfriend taken away by your best friend."

That was the final nail in the coffin, as she instantly burst into tears, throwing her arms around him, pulling him close. "How... Could... He... Do... This... To... Me..." She said in between sobs. "How could THEY?" she cried into his shirt, and Cody wrapped his arms around her, patting her on the back. "Shhh..."

He couldn't help but smile maliciously. _I got you now..._

"It's all going to be OK... Everyone on the team is against her..." He spoke softly. "We'll lose the next challenge, and she'll be gone... Okay?"

She nodded as tears continued trailing down her face.

"Look..." He pushed all traces of a smile off his face, and replaced it with a soft smile, as he raised her head up to meet his gaze. "You have to stay strong, Courtney... Do you understand? You have to stay strong... You can't let yourself be destroyed by them.. You are BETTER than them, do you understand? Don't lose the game over them... Rise above them..." He spoke with confidence. "We'll vote off Gwen, and then I'll help you vote off Duncan, and then... We can work together and go far into the game... YOU can do this. You're a strong person."

This seemed to move her, and her tears stopped, and a fierce look of determination replaced her somber expression. "You're right..." She said, as she rose off the floor, and Cody did the same. "I'm not going to be destroyed by them... I'll destroy them first... BOTH of them..." She scowled.

Cody watched this, smiling. "Let's do it..." He extended his hand, and she looked down at it, before smiling at him and shaking it. "Let's."

* * *

 **-Confessional Cam(C.C)**

 ***Cody looks into the camera, a smug smile on his face.***

"And that's the way the cookie crumbles." He remarked.

 ***Static***

 ***Cut to Courtney sitting, looking into the camera, a genuine smile on her face.***

"Cody's right... I can't let them destroy me... Not before I destroy them... With Cody's help, I'm gonna go far. Nothing's gonna stand in my way."

 ***She clenched her fist, her smile dropping slightly, being replaced by a sad smile.***

"God..." she muttered. "How I wish it could have gone better than this..."

 ***End Confessional Cam***

 **Confessional Cam(C.C)-**

* * *

Cody smiled to himself as Courtney walked out. Looks like I got her into the palm of my hand... Now all that's left to do is whatever challenge comes next, and then Gwen's gone, and then if she wasn't completely on my side already, I'll have total control over Courtney. This is too rich. He chuckled.

And then he felt guilty.

Courtney seemed so... Innocent in all of this. So vulnerable and broken, and for a second, he felt doubt set in... And then he remembered all of the bad things SHE had done to him, and all the feelings of doubt were replaced with the feelings of triumph. Of victory. He had done what was needed to be done, and now he had a new vote.

He rose to his feet and left the engine room, feeling quite proud of himself.

* * *

By the time Cody entered First Class, Sierra was already awake, Heather was back, and Courtney was already seated. The three of them were in a group talking about the drama that had recently plagued their team. Or atleast Heather and Courtney were. Sierra was... Sierra was cutting paper into the shape of Gwen, and then tearing them apart angrily. Which kind of disturbed Cody to some degree, but he ignored it as he walked up to them and took his seat next to Sierra, who was too wrapped up in her own little world to pay him any attention, much to his surprise.

Heather ignored his presence and focused on Courtney. "You really got over Duncan quickly." she commented, to which Courtney looked over at her and shrugged. "I'm not going to let that... Witch get the best of me. Or that ogre. Or anyone." She said, gritting her teeth. Heather looked away, a questioning look on her face.

 _Heather is already starting to notice something is up..._ He thought, _she has to be kicked out immediately after Gwen. She has to._

Cody continued to act naturally, looking over at Sierra with a nervous glance, watching Heather in the corner of his eye, who tapped her chin thoughtfully, before speaking up with a relieved sigh. "I'm just glad the target's off my back for once."

Cody smiled at that. _How wrong you are..._

Suddenly, the plane began to shake violently and the lights started to dim, before finally shutting off, leaving them in the dark.

"Attention potential crash victims," they heard Chris's voice over the loud speaker, "please prepare for a not-so-emergency landing."

* * *

 **Alright that's enough... Yeash this chapter was a beast in length. I'm not sure if it would be better to have each episode in it's own chapter, or to split them up into multiple chapters. What do you guys think? Shorter chapters and more frequent updates, or longer chapters and more spread out updates? Honestly I kind of wanted to keep writing and put the entire episode into this chapter but that'd make it be about 15k+ words in length, and I didn't want to keep you guys waiting.**

 **So anyways, I was thinking about it a while, and I realized how big of a gary stu I had made Cody, and not even 3 chapters in. So I decided to go back through this chapter and analyze him, and I literally cringed to myself at how I wrote him.**

 **"oh boo hoo hoo I will destroy you all! I am a super evil man now! rah rah rah!" Boring. Nothing there to relate to him to. So I decided to rewrite the confessional scene with him about 4 times, add in that beginning bit about him in class, and add some tidbits to the Gwen scene with him. I think it turned out pretty well, considering all the lengthy revisions I put this chapter through. What do you guys think?**

 **This note's getting long - but I wanna respond to some reviews. Speaking of which, if you guys have ANY questions about the story or anything else, feel free to ask in the reviews and I'll answer at the end of every chapter.**

* * *

 **Review responses**

* * *

 **Skillet: Nice! I'm glad I have you interested.**

 **Linkonpark100: I'm honestly very conflicted about romance in this story. I mean, I have ALOT of ways to fit in some form of it in, but keeping it interesting is the problem... I have a few ideas in the works that could really work, so we'll see.**

* * *

 **Welp that's all for now, hope to see you guys next time!**

 **-Twisted**


	4. Chapter 3: Ex Files, part 1

**NOTE: I made a mistake last chapter. No one was eliminated. Tyler is still in the game. My bad. ^.^**

* * *

The plane half-crashed, half-landed in what to Cody looked like some type of rocky desert.

Shortly after the plane had 'landed', the lights came back in on First Class and everyone looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. Cody wasn't exactly sure why the lights had gone off in the first place, seeing as to how that landing was probably one of the more softer ones he had experienced in his time spent on the plane. He looked out the window at the darkened desert, moon overhead, and saw in the distance some type of large, fenced in facility.

If he had to guess, he'd guess the challenge would probably be taking place over there, or atleast have something to do with it. Chris would never land somewhere like this without planning on making use of some of the landmarks. And it looked like that was a pretty big facility too, big enough to where splitting up into pairs might come in handy, meaning that Cody could probably pair up with Courtney and get further into her graces, but that was operating under the assumption that the challenge would require something like that. Still, he mentally noted the option.

"Ahem." Chris's voice came over the loudspeaker once more, "Attention surviving crash-victims: please make your way to the nearest exit and group up outside the plane, where your pilot will be with you shortly. Thank you." The speaker crackled and beeped as it turned off.

"Why's it sound like he has a stick up his ass?" Heather asked, holding a perfectly manicured hand out infront of her face.

"Because it's Chris. He always has a stick up his ass." Gwen joked, but no one laughed or paid it any attention, other than Courtney and Sierra glaring at her, causing the goth to sink down in her seat slightly, a nervous grin appearing on her face.

Cody rose to his feet, and it was at that point Sierra suddenly remembered he existed. "Codykins!" She squealed, dropping the headless paper Gwen figures she had been trapped in her own little world with. Cody sighed as she hopped to her feet and immediately pulled him into a tight embrace. He knew where this was going to go. Sierra was going to make it as difficult as possible to get any type of work with Courtney done.

Making things as difficult as possible was right, as not too long after grabbing him, the hug got tighter and tighter until... "Sierra..." he gasped, "Too tight!"

The stalkerzilla gave him no mind as she continued holding him in the deathgrip, oblivious to the pleas and gasps of the one she held in the 'hug', who was now struggling with all he had to escape the grip.

Much to his surprise, Courtney came to his aid. "Sierra, loosen up a bit or he's going to pass out." She said in a no-nonsense tone, glaring at the stalker, who returned the glare gladly. "OH I see! So now that you don't have Duncan, you're going to go after MY Cody, is that it?"

Courtney's eyes widened, "What? No! I just don't want Cody to be passed out before the challenge starts!" She continued to scowl at Sierra, Cody, being too busy with being crushed by Sierra, didn't see the faint blush appearing on the former CITs face.

After a few more moments of intense staring, Sierra, still glaring at Courtney, released her death grip on Cody, causing him to crumple to the floor with an "oof!".

Before anymore words could be exchanged, the loudspeaker came on again, and Chris's annoyed voice followed: "What's taking you guys so long? Team I am Really Really Really Super Hot is already outside! Get a move on! We're burning moon light!" the loudspeaker cut off with a screech, much to the annoyance of the contestants.

* * *

Both teams stood outside of the plane in the night air, conversing amongst each other idly about what the challenge would be about. Cody stood next to Courtney and Sierra, absorbed in thought at what had happened between Sierra and Courtney. It bothered him. He mistakenly assumed that Sierra would be fine with him spending time with girls other than her, and didn't think it would cause any problems. He seemed to have forgotten about how possessive she was. That was definitely going to cause some problems for the future, unless he tried to do something of course.

But what could he do? Sierra was always going to be that way. Even as he thought of this, she was standing extremely close to him.

And then a thought occurred: WHY was she so possessive? Why were her efforts so extreme? Perhaps because he turned down all her advances, making her resort to more catastrophic and drastic ones. That theory seemed to be the most plausible, as he remembered her not being as bad as she was now when she first started her stalking crusade against him. Then, he realized what he might have to do to correct this little problem, and it made him shudder with absolute disgust.

Idly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few pieces of candy.

As he threw a few into his mouth, he began to realize just how necessary doing what he had in mind would be if he were to keep Sierra in line, so she would not get in the way of his plans... And it made him feel even more disgusted at what had to be done.

By now, what little conversations the contestants were having had died down, and it was now silent outside the plane, so silent that Cody could hear the lizards and snakes and all other manner of desert creatures scurrying around in the night.

He quickly got bored, and resorted to looking around at his fellow contestants.

Gwen and Duncan were the first he looked at, and they were both looking into each other's eyes small smiles, and immediately Cody felt a brief flash of anger, but he held it at bay with the thought that soon, Gwen would be gone, and Duncan was soon to follow.

He then looked over at Courtney, and saw that she was watching them as well, only she did little to hide her anger, as she scowled in their direction, but the couple either didn't notice her, or didn't care, as they continued smiling at each other.

Then, his eyes rested on Alejandro, who stood with his arms crossed and his eyes shut, expression unreadable, head turned toward the starry sky.

Alejandro... He still hadn't thought up a strategy regarding him. Hell, he didn't even KNOW Alejandro, aside from his brief interactions with him during a few of the challenges. From what he could tell, he was a pretty nice guy, but that was it. There had to be something more to him. There had to be a reason why he had gotten so far into the game, and truth be told, Cody found it kind of strange how long Alejandro had been in the game, and how little he knew about him... Something had to be up with him, but Cody was not in any position to figure it out. There were never any windows of opprutunity for him to interact with him.

Cody suddenly connected something: whenever Bridgette and Leshawna started spending time with Alejandro, they seemed to be eliminated not too long after... Maybe Alejandro wasn't the nice guy he was making himself out ot be? But that was such a drastic conclusion Cody jumped to, that he couldn't possibly believe it right off the bat... Maybe it was just a coincidence? It would be stupid to immediately dismiss Alejandro as some type of manipulative conman right off the bat without even knowing anything about him, but it would also be stupid to ignore the facts that he had gathered about him... Plus-

Suddenly, Alejandro's eyes shot open, and his head lowered, and then turned, facing directly toward Cody, and then stared him directly in the eyes, which had definitely caught him off guard, seeing as to how he froze in his spot.

For what felt like hours, Cody and Alejandro stood staring each other down, and Cody wasn't sure if Alejandro was doing it out of malice or to be threatening or what, but he was not going to break eye contact - he would not back down no matter what the reason was, so he continued staring deep into Alejandro's cold, green eyes.

Finally, after a few nerve racking minutes went by, Chris stepped out of the Jumbo Jet sporting his usual sadistic grin, with some sort of army hat on his head, and Chef following not too far behind him. Cody, thankful for the excuse to break eye contact, looked over at Chris, still feeling Alejandro's gaze burning a hole in his skull.

 _Whatever his game is, one thing's for certain - I definitely have his attention now... And likewise, he has mine._ he thought to himself.

As Chris was walking up to take his spot infront of the contestants, Cody quickly stole another glance at Alejandro, who was now focusing on Chris with the same unreadable expression, but then Alejandro turned and looked at Cody, and then a sly grin formed on his lips, before he turned his attention back to Chris.

 _Definitely something weird about him._

Cody turned his attention back to Chris, who had now made his way to the front of the contestants, his back turned to the strange, large facility jutting out in the distance, and now smiled at the contestants, who looked back at him with a mixture of annoyance, boredom, and in Sierra's case, glee.

When he still didn't say anything, Duncan spoke: "So are you going to get on with the challenge or are you just going to stand there looking at as like we're a bag of cash?" Duncan said loudly, gaining an amused smile from Gwen.

Chris's smile still remained on his face, and he chuckled, "You are bags of money though! I just got my paycheck yesterday!" for emphasis, Chris pulled out a stack of fresh $100 bills from his pocket, flipping through them while smelling them, his smile growing. "Mmm... Nothing like the smell of fresh cash!"

A few contestants rolled their eyes, and Chris pocketed the money and cleared his throat before continuing.

"Tonight's challenge is a pretty simple one. You've probably noticed the pretty big buildings behind me."

Duncan interrupted again, "What could have given you that idea?"

This time, Chris's smiled turned into an annoyed scowl, and he waited a few minutes before continuing. "You done?" He asked the punk, "Because I can just eliminate you on the spot. It's no sweat off my back. The show will go on even without the drama you bring."

Duncan rolled his eyes, but stayed silent, and Chris's smile returned.

"Anyways, moving along... Tonight's challenge has brought you to Area 52, one of the most secure, craziest, alien-est places on Earth!" He paused, before muttering something along the lines of _"don't even ask how many hoops I had to jump through to get us here..."_

"Area 52?" Gwen mused, "I thought it was Area 51?"

Before Chris could answer, Duncan spoke up, "Yep. It's definitely Area 51. Man, it really says something when the show is so poor it has to fake an entire Area. Guess that is the host's fault more than anyone else's."

Chris scowled at Duncan. "Where you are standing is Area 52, the second layer of security guarding the base, and Area 51 is a few feet behind me... The only person not in Area 52 is Duncan, who is standing in the third layer of security, Area 53."

Before Duncan could voice his reply or remark, a laser beam shot out of nowhere at the punk, instantly causing him to be electrocuted with so much voltage that he fell to the ground instantly after in a smoking, twitching mess. Immediately, Gwen shouted "Duncan!" and rushed over to him, concerned, while the other contestants chuckled amongst themselves at the punk's misfortune.

Courtney especially loved it, as she laughed loudly at it, and Cody didn't bother stifling his amusement and chuckled heartily at the sight. _You deserve that, and more. All in due time._

Chris's sadistic smile returned ten-fold, as he continued his briefing. "Alright enough joking around, we're getting behind schedule... Your challenge for today is to infiltrate Area 51, and bring back an INTACT alien artifact before the other team."

"That's it?" Owen said, "that sounds easy."

To this, Chris chuckled slightly. "I wouldn't dismiss it as easy just yet, big O. They don't call Area 51 the most secure military facility on the face of the planet for nothing..." And with that ominous, vague warning, the host wished them all a 'good luck' as he turned and walked back into the plane, Chef Hatchet following behind him, leaving the two teams outside who prepared themselves for the task of getting inside the base.

* * *

So, the goal was to get inside Area 51, get an artifact, and get it back to the other team... So for Cody, that meant making sure his team didn't get inside Area 51 before the other team, and make sure they don't find an intact artifact... This was going to be a piece of cake. Especially with how ominous Chris was regarding Area 51s security and defenses. All he had to do was stall his team somehow.

If that failed and they got inside Area 51, then he would try to split up with Courtney, and bust all the artifacts he found... But there was a problem with that, a problem which had a name: Sierra. He'd have to keep her in mind during all the plans he made from this point on, because things could easily go wrong with her in the picture. Firstly, Sierra would no doubt find a problem with Cody going off alone with Courtney... Solution? Take Sierra with them...

Another problem: Gwen will wonder why he chose taking Courtney to find artifacts over her... But, maybe he could fix that problem by telling her that he wants to keep an eye on Courtney and Sierra, and make sure they don't sabotage things? Yes... That would work...

 _Alright, so a recap: I need to either make sure we don't get into Area 51, or pair up with Courtney and Sierra and destroy all the artifacts I come across and stall our progress as best as I can. Simple and easy._

Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot had snaked around to the other side of the facility, so they were out of sight of Team Amazon, therefore Team Amazon had no idea how much progress had been made on their end yet. Cody assumed that they would probably make it into the facility quickly, judging by how strong their team was, with the exception of Owen of course.

All he had to do was just stall for a little.

"Alright" Heather began, taking charge of the team as she usually did "Let's get inside... Follow me-"

Everyone rushed past her, and she shouted after them, "Hey!" she called after them, before following them, "Wait for me atleast!"

* * *

Somehow, Gwen had managed to take lead of the team, leading them across the barren desert towards Area 51, which grew closer and closer with each step, and Cody vaguely remembered Chris's threat about the security systems around the perimeter of the top secret facility. Was he just messing with them? He hadn't seen anything so far, not even a guard, and Area 51 was notorious for how strict they were with people getting close...

Then he started to get a little worried - what if his team got inside before the other team? What if his plan failed? But then he realized, it couldn't fail - the odds were all stacked in his favor. Gwen was universally hated by her team. Courtney was trying to sabotage the game along with him, even. There was no way it would fail. Still, he was kind of curious as to why they hadn't met any resistance yet.

Maybe Chris WAS just toying with them, getting their anxieties up. Maybe he was full of-

Suddenly, the ground rumbled and the ground from underneath Sierra exploded, sending the stalker flying into the air with a scream of terror. Instantly, Team Amazon screeched to a stop, and instantly, everything for Cody clicked: a long and flat empty stretch of ground infront of a top secret facility? An explosion? The answer is obvious...

"Nobody move a muscle." Cody said loudly, "we are on a minefield."

Immediately Courtney jumped the gun; "Nice job, NEW HEATHER," she said venomously "you lead us into a MINEFIELD!"

Sierra suddenly landed flat on the ground behind them, groaning in pain, but for the most part somehow unharmed by the explosion, so nobody on the team paid her any mind.

"New Heather!?" Gwen's eyes widened with fear, while Heather let out a genuine laugh of joy.

"New Heather!" She repeated snarkily, "it has a nice ring!"

Cody quickly got annoyed. "Quiet!" he barked, causing his teammates, save for Sierra to look at him, surprised he had lost his temper like that, and truth be told, Cody was surprised as well. When they all were looking at him, Cody continued sternly, but less loudly, "This is a serious situation." He calmly said. "We do not have time for this bullshit."

* * *

 **-Confessional Cam(C.C)**

 ***Heather looks into the camera, her arms crossed, an amused smirk on her lips***

"Jeeze, what got into the twerp?"

 **End Confessional Cam(C.C)-**

* * *

Cody fumed for a moment and then realized something... _What the Hell am I doing? This is probably one of the best possible things that could have happened! We're on a minefield for God's sake, this is like my prayer answered! All I have to do is keep us on this field for as long as I can, and we'll lose the challenge!_ Cody cheered inwardly at this revelation, and then stayed silent.

Cody's harsh words seemed to have an effect on his team though, as they stayed silent as well, everyone looking around at each other hopeful that someone had an answer to getting off of the minefield. Behind them, Sierra groaned again. "Codykins?" she muttered "am I in Heaven? I want my 72 Cody virgins..."

Cody cringed and turned his attention back to the task at hand.

"Well." he paused, "I got nothing."

"Neither do I."

"Me neither."

"We're as good as dead."

Courtney looked over in Gwen's direction and opened her mouth to speak, but then seemed to bite her tongue, probably remembering Cody's words, which he instantly screamed at himself inwardly for. _Fool! You could have wasted so much time by keeping their feud going!_ he scolded himself, but then relaxed, realizing that regardless of them feuding openly or not, there was literally no way off of this minefield. It would take a miracle to get them off. Or in Cody's case, it would take some horrible stroke of bad luck.

And apparently, that bad luck came in the form of Gwen.

"Hey Cody?"

Cody immediately felt agitated to his core. Oh _God... What does **she** want? I was hoping I could just get through this challenge without having to hear her talk to me..._

"Yes, Gwen? What is it?" Cody said, barely managing to stop bitterness from seeping into his words.

"Do you still have some of that candy?"

Before Cody could ask what the Hell she was talking about, and what candy had anything to do with this situation, Courtney stepped in "Candy?" she asked sarcastically, "we're standing on a minefield and you are thinking about CANDY?"

Gwen scowled at her, but continued speaking to Cody, this time with an annoyed tone of voice "Do you have any or not?"

 _Wow. Really nice treatment of the person you're trying to get something from._

"Yes, I have some." Cody didn't bother to hide the irritation this time, he didn't care what she thought anymore, and she seemed to recoil slightly at his tone of voice, because she spoke softer this time: "Do you think you could maybe... Throw some out on the ground infront of me? Trust me on this."

Cody quickly caught on to what she was hoping would happen when he threw the candy on the ground. She was hoping that it would trigger the mines to explode and clear a place for them to hop on and escape the field. It was a stupid idea granted, but it was literally their only option, and Cody knew it, which is why he stayed silent as he tried to think of an excuse... Should he just lie and say 'no'? What was he to do? Thankfully, he didn't have to do anything because of what happened next.

"Oh, trust her she says - all she'll do with that trust is just eat it like she's going to eat all your candy, because she's just a nasty pasty-"

"SHUT UP!" Gwen yelled angrily, instantly silencing Courtney and gaining a shocked look from both Cody and Heather.

Quickly, Cody felt his anger boil underneath his skin, as he saw Courtney's lip tremble slightly, and saw her pushing back a wave of emotions. _What the HELL is her problem? Christ, she already stole her damn boyfriend and kicked her to the curb like she didn't matter, me included, Courtney is rightfully pissed off! Actually, you know what? It doesn't matter what she thinks of me at this point - why did I even bother holding back my true feelings? She's going to get her ass voted off in the end anyway!_

It was the fact that Cody wanted to lash out at the person who had hurt him the most in a long time, and the fact that it would delay Gwen's stupid idea and delay them in the challenge that pushed Cody into doing what he was about to do next. Without any warning, Cody dropped what restraint he had on his anger, and ripped it all out, bringing his emotions to the surface.

"Uh, excuse me GWEN." He said the name bitterly, each word laced with a mix of hatred, anger, and hurt. "but who the HELL do you think you ARE?" Gwen looked over at Cody, shocked at what he had just said to her, and it seemed to catch his other teammates off guard as well, as they all looked wide eyed at him. Sierra rolled over on her side and her eyes shot open, not believing what she just heard. Courtney looked at him shocked as well, her previous sadness vanishing.

Before Gwen could mouth a response, Cody took a deep breath, and then continued, breaking into into an angry rant "First, you kiss her damn boyfriend, destroying both of your friendships and showing ABSOLUTELY ZERO remorse, and THEN, as if that wasn't bad enough, you try to make YOURSELF look like the victim, and then you try to get ME to help YOUR dumb ass out of the hot water you lead yourself into, after IGNORING me the ENTIRE SEASON and treating me like DIRT, all because you couldn't keep your damn lips shut, and probably your legs closed too. You are a HORRIBLE human being. I can't BELIEVE I had ANY sort of emotion CLOSE to love toward you. I HATE you."

Cody panted and heaved, finishing his angry rant, leaving everyone completely speechless and shocked at what he had just said to Gwen.

* * *

 **-Confessional Cam(C.C)**

 ***Sierra looks into the camera, shocked, before bursting out into a happy squeal***

* * *

 ***Heather looks into the camera with a shocked look on her face***

"Man... I never thought that the twerp-... I mean, that Cody, could ever do something like that."

 ***She looks up thoughtfully for a moment before static interrupts the camera***

* * *

 ***Courtney appears, a small blash on her face along with a grateful smile***

"Even though he's kind of a geek, and scrawny and not really my type... It was very nice of him to do something like that for me..." she mutters the part, before rushing out of the confessional

* * *

 ***Gwen holds her head in her hands, looked down at the floor***

"I... I can't believe it... The kiss has cost me everyone. Even Cody."

 ***She looks up into the camera and a single tear falls from her eye***

* * *

 **End Confessional Cam(C.C)-**

* * *

Heather recovered from the shock pretty quickly and looked at him with an amused smile. "Wow. Didn't think you had it in you." she dryly commented. "That was pretty intense. Right on the mark. A+ in my book."

Courtney was completely silent, her shock being replaced by awe, and then being replaced by a blank expression, unreadable.

He didn't care.

He continued staring down Gwen with a look of pure hate, and Gwen met his hateful look with one of shock, confusion, and complete and utter fear. And the thing of it was; it felt GOOD. Cody had never felt so good in his entire life. It was amazing. He felt naked, naked and free. He finally told the person who had hurt him what he thought of her, and it felt absolutely incredible. Why was he hiding all of this? He should have done this from the beginning!

Now's the time...

Before Gwen could respond, Cody pulled a handful of candy out of his pocket and threw it out on the ground infront of her, and instantly the mine there exploded, which seemed to snap her out of her shock, and she turned away and hopped on the spot, ignoring her team, ignoring Cody, her face a blank slate, much like Courtneys.

Speaking of Courtney, Cody, still digging through his pockets for another handful of candy, turned and looked at her with a look of genuine sympathy. "I'm sorry, Courtney." he said. "But it had to be said."

Courtney's blank expression was replaced by a sad, somber one, but she smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you..." she whispered.

"Don't mention it." he muttered to her, "now let's get going..."

His team rotated positions, as he threw a handful of candy out on the ground infront of them, each time an explosion occurring in the spot he threw it. Sierra was up and moving now, a dumb grin on her face, but she didn't say anything. Gwen finally had a readable emotion on her face, and it was one of... Sadness.

 _Well good... She deserves to be sad..._ Cody thought to himself, all of his feelings of pride and victory being replaced by a numb feeling that he couldn't quite put his finger on. What was wrong with him now? He had told Gwen what he thought of her, it felt good, so why did he feel bad now?

It didn't take long for them to clear the minefield, and they finally were a few feet away from the fence, which was connected to a large, futuristic looking high security door, a keypad next to it.

Once they had cleared the minefield, Courtney threw her arms around Cody and pulled him in to a hug, which Cody hesitantly returned, confused as to why Courtney was showing such drastic affection suddenly, still feeling numb on the inside from the aftermath of his rant. _Probably because I'm the first person to stand up for her for real on this stupid show._ And in true calculated fashion, he then thought: _Now she's definitely in my clutches._ And then felt greater shame than before.

"What's this for?" he asked her.

"As a thank you..." she muttered, and then broke the hug, her face slightly red, eyes puffy as a tear trailed down her cheek. Sierra watched this with anger, but if she had any problems with it, she seemed to internalize them all as she stayed silent.

 _That confirms it... I have her completely in my grasp... This was by all means a victory, but why do I feel so bad?_

Cody once again looked over at Gwen, who was already up at the door, trying to open it, her expression still sad, and Cody's numb feeling broke, and he finally felt something...

He felt...

Guilty?

* * *

 **This was the biggest pain in the ass to write. And I'm only through the BEGINNING of the chapter. God almighty damn it was hard. I had to scrap about 5,000 words earlier because it just wasn't coming out good. I think this is alot better than what I had before. The problem I'm having is that I can do two character interactions just fine, and can do internal stuff good, but when given a cast of characters and a plot to move them through it gets very hard to write for some reason. You can probably tell how rough around the edges alot of this chapter felt. I tried the very best I could, I can only hope that I'll get better at this with time.**

 **Next chapter will be alot better, I promise you that. It'll have some focus on Gwen for a change. I'm wondering how much I can do with her.**

 **Speaking of that, I hope that it didn't feel too forced with the rage scene and Cody telling her off. I actually didn't even plan on having that in, but I figured "why would Cody continue lying to her if he's just going to vote her off?"**

 **So that being said, what do you think so far? Am I doing the episode justice? I sure hope so.**

 **Anyways,**

 **Pardon my language but fuuuuuuuuuuck Gwen and Duncan. I had to muster up the will power to watch an episode of TDWT for the first time in about 2 or so years, and it had to be the Ex Files, and the callous disregard for Courtney's feelings while Duncan and Gwen selfishly just messed around with each other with no real regret or sympathy at all for anyone but themselves was so... I dunno. It just didn't make for a fun viewing experience. Gwen is actually one of my favorite characters, but now I remember why I had such a change of heart after World Tour. They just completely butchered her and Duncan and Courtney for this stupid, poorly thought out rushed romance triangle crap.**

 **So on to reviews - everyone seems to be pleased so far with where I'm going and what I'm doing with Cody. I think I'm going to be portraying Cody as more of a "mentally ill hatefilled person" more than anything. Next chapter we're gonna have Cody facing some internal contradictions and problems. Hopefully, it'll be alot better too, because of what I have planned.**

 **Until next time,**

 **-Twisted**


	5. Chapter 4: Ex Files, part 2

"Come on, you stupid door!"

Heather pounded on the large door to the facility, each pound only serving as to increase Cody's headache. The numb feeling he had felt before had quickly been replaced by the all too familiar feeling of dread, and a horrible sense of guilt, the guilt gnawing through him even harder each time he glanced over at Gwen, who was sitting up against a rock with her head down, buried in her hands.

What was the problem now? This was exactly what he wanted... For Gwen to be defeated, to feel horrible for the things she's done, not only that, but for Cody to be the one to show her what she's done, but now that he had done it... He just felt wrong.

Why should I feel guilty for her? She has done nothing but ignore me this entire season, hurt me, and then going off and kissing her new friend's boyfriend and trying to manipulate me into getting her farther in the game... And that's not even counting what she did during the first season.

Truth be told, Cody honestly understood why Gwen reacted so harshly to him in the first season of Total Drama Island. He had tried to take food out of his pants and have a picnic on a boat with her, even, and while he did set her up with Trent, he had also taken her bra... It was no wonder their relationship was so stunted, ever after she finished the Island.

He distinctly remembered all of the times she went out of her way to avoid him after the show, how she tried to jump to the end of every conversation he had with her, even ones where he wasn't flirting with her... Maybe she wasn't entirely to blame for ignoring his affections?

But no, that's not right - what about what she did to Courtney? And that still doesn't excuse her trying to manipulate my feelings for her to get her farther in the game...

As Cody fought the war inside of his head, he felt the all too familiar embrace of Sierra, her arms closing in from behind, as she purred behind him, although he noted how the embrace was much less tighter than it had been before. Perhaps Courtney's words had gotten through to her...

Courtney...

He glanced over at Courtney, who was standing a small distance away from the team, her back turned to them, gazing out at the long, empty, barren stretch of open Nevada desert. Throughout all of this, he had not yet thought of Courtney, aside from the fact that she was hurt by Gwen, and had her boyfriend stolen... But what really got to Cody was that upon thinking of Courtney, he had realized... He was using her feelings to get farther in the game, just like how Gwen had used his...

This revelation rocked Cody to the core.

He had spent all this time hating Gwen for what she did to him and Courtney and everyone else, but he had been doing things that were not too far off from what she had done...

How... Hypocritical of him...

Sierra tightened her grip on him, as Heather's pounding on the door got faster and louder, so loud that Cody was surprised that someone inside the facility didn't come and check on what was happening to it, and finally Heather stopped, panting and heaving in exhaustion as she scowled at the door, frustrated at the unmovable obstacle in her way.

To everyone's surprise, the keypad next to the door beeped three times, before a voice was heard: "Moorse code pattern recognized and accepted - Welcome to Area 51."

The mechanisms inside the door whirred and screeched as the door smoothly slid open, allowing entry to Team Amazon.

Heather stood there, all traces of annoyance and frustration being replaced by one of confusion, before she quickly turned to Team Amazon, displaying a smug satisfied grin. "Ta-da!" she scanned her team members' faces, who all looked at her with unimpressed expression(except for Gwen, who just looked flat out depressed), before they each walked past her into the base, leaving the queen bee to enter last, who muttered something along the lines of: "no need for a 'thank you' or anything..."

Once they were inside, they were faced with the fact that there were ALOT more buildings on the inside than they had originally thought, and they ALL looked like warehouses. They had no idea where to even start looking, and Cody was too wrapped up with his inner conflictions to try to formulate a plan. Heather noted her team's lack of a plan, and tried to step in as she usually did in times like this.

"Alright... So..." She looked around the base, and the sheer size of the place became overwhelming even to her, and she trailed off as she too realized she had no idea where to begin.

Cody, sensing an opportunity to get away from everyone, quickly stepped in. "We need to split up." the members of Team Amazon, save for Gwen, couldn't help but notice the drained, depressed tone of voice instead of the usually enthusiastic geek had, but figured it was due to what Cody had just went through with Gwen.

They waited for Cody to elaborate on "splitting up", but he stayed silent when they all looked to him, and Heather shrugged "Cody's got the right idea I guess... Split up."

Before Cody could start walking off in a random direction, Gwen actually started walking, her head still hanging lowly, she quickly walked away from the group without a word spoken, and Cody felt even worse. He felt so bad, that he didn't even notice Heather walking off, leaving him alone with Sierra and Courtney, who watched him stand there zoning out for a moment.

"Uh... Cody?" Courtney waved her hand infront of Cody's face, who suddenly seemed to snap back into reality.

"Yes?" He looked at Courtney, eager to get whatever she wanted out of the way so he could go think someplace alone, and he suddenly realized Sierra was standing a few feet away, and was eyeing their interactions with a strange intense curiousity.

She bit her lip, and seemed to be thinking of something to say, and Cody wondered what she was so nervous about all of a sudden, and she finally spoke: "I think we should go together... That way, we could cover twice the ground."

Cody didn't even manage to explain how that didn't make any sense because the point of them splitting up was supposed to be to cover more ground quickly anyway before Sierra jumped into the conversation, instantly butting heads with Courtney.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed angrily, "You're trying to take my Codykins away from me!"

"What!?" Courtney stammered, before returning Sierra's angry scowl "That's... No! That's ridiculous!"

"Oh please! Why else would you try to go off alone with him? You lose your boyfriend to a boyfriend stealer so you have to steal mine!? Is that it!?"

"Uh, HELLO! Earth to Sierra - You two aren't even DATING!"

The two girls continued bickering and arguing back and forth like this for some time, and they got so wrapped up in it that they both didn't notice that the person they were arguing over had actually slipped away somewhere near the beginning of their fight, taking advantage of the fact they were too wrapped up in their own chaos to pay attention. By the time one of them looked over to Cody for his input, he was gone.

* * *

It only took about ten minutes of walking before it finally dawned on her: she had absolutely no idea where she was, and she did not care. Gwen had absent-mindedly walked away from her 'team' the moment Cody suggested splitting up, and she jumped at the chance to get away from everyone.

She stopped dead in her tracks at the thought of Cody, and then instantly, all the of the horrible things he had said about her came flooding back into her memory, bringing with them just as much emotional trauama they had as before. They hit her like a bag of bricks, and then finally, the full weight of what kind of a mess she had gotten herself into clicked: She was now completely, utterly, hopelessly alone.

Probably the only person she had left was Duncan at this point. Everyone else had abandoned her. And she couldn't lie to herself anymore. She couldn't lie to them anymore. No, Gwen had finally realized, that this was indeed all her fault. It took Cody, her stalker of God knows how long, exploding in her face to finally realize what horrible consequences her actions have had on everyone.

She felt a horrible ache in her chest, and she looked around the empty base, eyeing all of the locked up warehouses, and after making sure she was completely alone, sunk down to her knees and began to sob profusely.

How horrible this entire thing was.

She had given away her friendship with Courtney... For this? Everyone back home had also no doubt seen what she had done. It was broadcast on NATIONAL TELEVISION, for Chirst's sake... But somehow, in the heat of the moment, Gwen had not thought of any of her friends or family, or what they'd think of her kiss with Duncan.

She sobbed harder, curling up into a fetal position on the cold ground.

It felt like she was living in a bubble, and finally the bubble had popped, and now she was forced to exist in the Hell she had created, all for Duncan. What kind of a fantasy world had she been living in? How did she not realize what would have happened?

And then, she tried to convince Cody to help vote Courtney off? Cody was completely right, she is a horrible person, and now, she was a horrible person who was alone. No Courtney, no Cody, her friends probably think she's a monster, and they are right. She is alone.

She is alone, with nobody but Duncan...

She sobbed even harder.

* * *

Cody somehow managed to stumble onto an open and vacant warehouse, which he assumed was recently unloaded seeing as to how mostly all of the crates, save for about 13 or so stacked up were gone, leaving the warehouse empty for the most part.

The geek now sat up against the wall behind the crates, his head in his hands, thinking intensely about what was going on inside of him.

He had told Gwen off, and it felt good for the moment, but now he felt absolutely horrible, and every single thought he had of Gwen made his heart ache and made the feeling worse. Was this just him somehow getting over her? Or was it something else?

Gwen was his... Friend.

A friend who he had just hurt. And for what? To win the game? How was hurting Gwen going to win him the game? What the Hell was he doing? What was he thinking? This isn't the way to win anything... And now, it was too late: the damage had already been done. Before, he could have just stayed her friend and stuck with her through this Duncan shit, but...

What?

What the Hell was he thinking? She brought every single bad thing that happened her on herself. She shouldn't have kissed Duncan. And then to manipulate him into trying to keep her on the show...

His heart ached.

Maybe that was it? Perhaps there was some part of Cody that still believed that Gwen wasn't as bad as he thought, that he was over-exaggerating her selfishness, but now he sees it: she is indeed as horrible as he thought she was...

But he figured out she was horrible before he told her off, though.

He sighed, feeling the constant contradictions drag on and on and on until it made his head spin, and his stomach nauseous. He felt absolutely exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to curl up and pass out, but his mind raced with all the inner conflict ripe in his mind.

And then he remembered Courtney, and went back to what he realized before. How he was doing to her exactly what Gwen tried to do with him. How was he any better than Gwen? He was trying to manipulate Courtney into getting himself farther in the game. He was practically Heather once he did that.

But then, he realized, what he did with Courtney wasn't technically manipulation...

All he did was cheer her up, and make her determined. If she wanted to be in an alliance with him, than that was a win win for both of them, right? And then he immediately discarded that thought once he remembered how he wanted to vote off Sierra later on.

He rose to his feet, feeling stiff and sore, and stood in the dark warehouse for a moment, before stumbling out of the open door, the moon illuminating his path as he set off in a random direction, trying his best to take his mind off the war waging inside of his head.

* * *

Gwen had somehow managed to get herself together enough to start walking around the facility again, even though it was still in an aimless direction. A part of her wanted to get lost in the base, get lost and caught by the security officials, and then imprisoned and taken away and locked up somewhere far away where she can live out her days in lonely bitter solitude.

She found herself on a walkway in the middle of a few large buildings, and she realized she had somehow managed to make her way to the center of the facility.

These buildings looked almost like all the other ones she had seen on her walk through the facility, only nearly twice as large, with an especially huge one on her right. Next to this one was a sign which read "ARTIFACT STOARGE FACILITY X", and she shook her head slightly in disbelief.

For a supposedly extremely secretive military facility, they sure were out in the open about what was contained inside.

Suddenly, she heard voices, and she ducked down behind a truck, really not wanting to be seen by anyone right now.

The voices got closer and closer until the people who were talking were in her view.

There infront of her stood Team Chris is Really Really Really Hot, with Alejandro at the front, seemingly leading them, who looked at each of the large buildings skeptically. Her eyes however quickly rested on Duncan, who looked around with tired, bored eyes.

Her heart skipped a beat upon seeing him, and she forgot all of the overwhelming feelings of dread and guilt, and wanted nothing more than to run to him and bury herself in his chest and feel his arms hold her and comfort her.

"Alright, let's go into this one. I think it may have what we are searching for." Alejandro motioned towards the larger of the warehouses, the one with the sign on it, and Duncan rolled his eyes.

"Nah, what gave you that idea? The big sign on the side of it with the words 'ARTIFACT STORAGE FACILITY', or the fact that it's the biggest building in the whole base?"

Alejandro seemed to ignore the punk's sarcastic remark as he lead them up to the security door on the side of the building and toyed with the keypad, and Gwen took this as her moment to escape. She didn't want to be seen by them. Not yet, anyway.

After she was sure she was far enough away, she began to break out into a slight run, her steps filled with a new purpose: she knew where there could be some alien artifacts, she could stay in the ga-

She slid to a halt upon remembering...

She had no teammates to help her secure a victory, other than Heather.

Instead of feeling sad or lonely, she got angry this time. This was stupid! There was no possible way that she could win this challenge on her own, or any challenges on her own. The only way she could get far in this game was with Duncan on her team, and the merge wasn't for who knows how many more challenges, and she didn't have the means necessary to get to the merge.

But honestly? She wasn't really wanting to stay in the game anyway anymore. The only good reason she could think of staying in the game was for Duncan, and even then... She wouldn't get far enough to be of any help to him, and they would have little time together anyway.

That, and she just couldn't take this anymore.

She couldn't imagine having to stay with her teammates anymore, the ones who hate her guts, especially Cody... And it was at that moment that she had decided...

To Hell with it.

She was going to vote herself off.

* * *

Cody wandered into another open warehouse, this time however, it wasn't really empty at all. No - the warehouse was actually cramped, surprising given the huge amount of space there was in it. Everywhere as far as he could see where boxes, all piled up as high as the ceiling.

Something caught his eye however.

Leaning innocently on a box was a strange looking object, which instantly peaked Cody's interest. As he neared it, he began to make out the intricate details of this object: it was a human-sized, silver pod with orange window 'panes' on it, which seemed to glow brightly. From within the device, Cody could hear a slight buzzing sound. Curiously, Cody stepped up to the device and found that the closer he got to it, the more profound the buzzing seemed to get, along with the glowing.

Finally, as he was close enough to extend his hand and touch it, it started to pulsate and hum, and Cody felt oddly compelled to reach out and tap one of the orange windows on the front of the pod.

He did so, and upon contact with the device, he felt a slight jolt of electricity travel through his finger and up his arm, and he instantly snapped his hand away, feeling the painful electricity subside as fast as it appeared.

Then, Cody noticed how the device's lights seemed to change color - the orange window panes faded into a glowing emerald, and the humming increased in intensity, and it began pulsating, gaining speed extremely fast. Cody wondered if he should turn and run as fast as he could away from the strange machine, when finally the emerald colored lights were replaced with a dark blue, and the noises it was making ceased.

Cody watched the machine with morbid curiousity for a moment, waiting for it to do something else, and something else it did - the machine seemed to slide open, and inside of the machine was...

Cody.

Only it didn't look exactly like Cody.

This Cody's skin was unnaturally pale, it's hair was kind of a darker shade of brown than Cody's hair was, and it's features seemed to stick out kind of abnormally. And that wasn't all... When Cody... Or... When it opened it's eyes, they were... Yellow. Cat-like almost. The being seemed to stare out of the pod with a vacant look on its face, before it seemed to almost 'pop' into itself, as it jolted slightly, and then its eyes began to scan the room, hovering past Cody and looked all over the place rapidly, before finally its eyes returned to a now very confused Cody, and that is where they stayed, unblinking.

The things mouth opened slightly, as if trying to say something, or think of something to say, and Cody once again thought it would be wise to run, but he seemed to be caught in a trance, as he looked into those horrible eyes the creature had staring into his.

Finally, after a few moments of Cody and... It staring at each other, words came out of the creatures mouth.

"Hello" it croaked, its mouth barely moving. "Cody..."

It appeared to shake gently with the mention of Cody's name, and Cody felt extremely creeped out as the creature's mouth remained open, and then formed a small smile.

"Uh..."

In one fluid motion, the creature flew out of the machine, and was infront of Cody, its mouth now closed, and a scowl on its face.

Cody somehow didn't jump at this, and he frighteningly gazed into the creatures still unblinking eyes, which were lit up with a firey fury, the likes of which he had never seen in his entire life before.

"What..." Cody began, trying to find words in the midst of his panic "What are you?"

The being smiled, its smile extremely unnaturally wide, the scowl still on its face. "I am you..."

Before Cody could question further, the being stepped closer, so close that it was mere inches away from Cody, its horrible eyes staring into Cody's with a fire to them. The smile on its face fell, and it began to speak: "You second guess yourself now. Why? Is this not what _we_ wanted?"

Cody tried to back away, but immediately after his first step, the being took a step, and it was obvious that the creature was not going to let Cody back away without an answer to its question, and frankly, Cody was a little too disturbed to even be paying attention to whatever question it just asked.

"Uh..."

The being suddenly shoved Cody to the floor, and watched as he quickly shot off the ground, and opened his mouth to ask why the being just did that, and the being repeated his question: "Why do you second guess yourself?"

Cody stood once more, although this time the being did not try to get up in his face, which Cody was thankful for.

What the Hell is this thing? What does it want from him? Why was it asking him this?

He once again thought of running, but Cody realized that he was backed into a corner, with no way out, and he was not quite sure what exactly this strange being was capable of. If he tried running, he was afraid it would do something crazy, like fire a laser into the back of his head.

With no other choice to resort to, Cody decided to answer its question.

"Well..." He began, and the being folded its arms, eyeing him curiously, while tapping its foot impatiently.

"I..." Cody started, but was immediately cut off the other Cody jumping in: "Am just as weak of a coward as I was before." its scowl deepened at Cody, and Cody held out his hands defensively, before finally having enough of whatever this thing was, and returned the scowl: "What the Hell do you want?" he asked it, and it paused, looking at him for a moment before responding.

"I want you to quit being in denial."

Quit being in denial? How was Cody in denial? He was not in denial at all - what he was doing was wrong. He was a hypocrite for what he had done to Courtney and a horrible freind for what he had said to Gwen as well, and instantly he responded as such: "But I am not in denial... I am a horrible person. I tried manipulating Courtney when she was at her lowest, and told Gwen all of those horrible things."

The creature did a doubel take.

"Horrible friend!?" It raised its eyebrow at this, and the look on its face was like how someone would react to someone saying the most ridiculous thing ever. "How are you a horrible friend, you fool? She tried to manipulate you first. She hurt you countless times before. Do you seriously not remember any of that?"

Cody shook his head of the thoughts invading his mind, thoughts of Gwen attacking him and antagonizing him.

"But... I was harassing her though."

The creature shook its head at him. "And? Even after you set her up with that other fool, she still avoided you. How do you defend that?"

He couldn't.

Cody stayed silent, as he realized the being was right.

"Well... What about Courtney?"

The creature chuckled maliciously. "The CIT? Please... She is just as horrible as Gwen is. Remember, Cody, all the things she had said to you before you comforted her? She is only merely being nice to you now because she believes you to be the only thing she has to rely on in this game. Do you remember how she reacted to Harold back in season 1? When she chased him down with a lamp post? And for what - for getting back at her asshole of a boyfriend, for bullying him? Harold was in the right. Courtney was caught in the crossfire."

Cody shook his head. "No... That's not right..." He muttered, feeling the contradictions in his head swivel and swirl out of control once again. "Harold voted her out by cheating just to get back at Duncan, she didn't even do anything to Harold. It was completely Duncan's fault."

The creature laughed again. "You may very well be right about that, but what about all that she did in Action? And then there's this season..."

"But that was because she was dating Duncan! He could have that effect on anyone!"

The creature stared in him dead in the eye again, and with a deadpan look: "So? Does that excuse her actions or what she is? Does it matter how she became what she is? Tell me - if a murderer murders someone because he was tricked, is he not a murderer?"

Before Cody could respond, it continued "And remember how she was in the beginning of the first season... How she feigned politeness... But when it boiled down to it, how self-righteous she was... How her word was always law. How egotistical she was. And that was even before Duncan. Duncan merely made her negative qualities worse.|

Cody thought for a moment, touching briefly upon just how weird this entire situation he was in was - a strange, dark, evil looking clone of himself attacking him for his views on his friends, and then he began to reflect on what it had said... And he realized the creature was right. It was completely right. Everything it had said made completely sense to Cody.

The creatue calmly and patiently waited this time, and Cody looked back up to it with a drained, tired look. "So you're right... But there's one other thing... Sierra?"

It smiled again. "Ah, Sierra... Are you seriously going to try to defend your manipulation of her now? Do you remember all the times she invaded your personal space? How miserable she made you? And not to mention the fact that she made you the one to blame when you tried to rightfully remove her from the game. She is just as bad as all the others, if not worse. She is selfish. She does not care about how you feel, so why should you care about how she feels?"

Cody shut his eyes and thought back to all the times Sierra had invaded his privacy, and how his wishes to be alone went ignored, as the stalker invaded his personal space. And then once again, he realized the being was right once again. And then, just like that, Cody's mind was calm, the internal war inside of his mind for the most part, ended. And he was left feeling rather empty. With a clear head, he opened his eyes and addresed the creature again.

"Okay... So you're right about all of them. But so what? They're all horrible people. Does that mean I should be a horrible person to? Stoop to their level?"

The creature shook its head. "How are you stooping to their level? You are not stooping to their level... You are beating them. Beating them at their own childish little games. Winning. Getting vengence."

Cody was not so sure. "But vengence... I don't really care about revenge."

"Really? You don't? Because I think otherwise..."

Finally, Cody had enough, and he finally asked: "Well just who exactly are you? How do you know all of this?"

"I told you, Cody, I am you... Or, more accurately put, I am your subconcious. Come to resolve a few things... I am what you are on the inside."

Cody was dumbfounded. Was this thing really what he was on the inside? What he had become? What kind of a monster was he?

"Even now - you continue to doubt yourself and wither away, beaten down by those around you... Tell me, Cody, are you not tired of this? Are you not tired of being weak and cowering in the shadows of those above you?"

Cody realized that the being was right on the mark again. He was. He was tired of it. He was tired of being beaten down into the dirt by everyone around him, by people who didn't care at all about him except for to fill some kind of selfish goal. Only when he did something for someone else did they care to have him around. This was especially true in Total Drama. He couldn't think of a single person who tolerated his company if he was not doing something for them. The only people he could think of were his friends... His REAL friends... Noah, Harold, Owen, to name a few...

"You're right... I am tired of it..." He muttered bitterly, and the being's scowl finally dropped off its face and a genuine, reassuring smile appeared. "At last you see the light... Now." The being began to... Melt, and Cody stepped back, a shocked look on his face at what he was seeing, but the being seemed to pay no mind to it as it continued: "Go, complete your mission. Show them how you are done with them. Not only to show them, but to show yourself... Prove to yourself that you are indeed better than they are."

The creature stumbled back into the machine it came from, and on que the machine beeped lowly and the hatch slid shut, and a loud whirring sound was heard for a moment before the window panes became orange again, and then shut off completely, the machine now dead.

Cody cautiously walked up to the machine and peered inside and saw the being was gone.

* * *

"This is all your fault, you know!"

"My fault? You're the one who's too clingy!"

"I am not! He likes it!"

Sometime after noticing Cody had left, Sierra and Courtney somehow managed to stop arguing enough to agree to walk through the facility with each other until they found either him, or Heather, or found an artifact. The full Moon overhead was still strong, as they both continued their bickering whilst walking through the mostly lonely facility, neither one of them wondering why exactly Area 51, the most secure military base on the planet, was void of almost any guards.

Courtney glowered at Sierra, the stalkerzilla's crazy behavior was increasingly getting on the CITs nerves, which already were razer thin from all of the emotional trauama she had been through in the recent days, and it took all of her composure to not reach out and strangle the obsessesed stalker. They had started arguing about Cody, then about Heather, then about the way Sierra styled her hair, and then back to Cody again, although this one seemed to be less intense than the previous one they had, which resulted in the two girls on the ground, wrestling.

Had Duncan been there, he probably would have called it a catfight.

Duncan... The punk's name made a flurry of different emotions flutter through Courtney, emotions ranging from hatred, loathing, bitterness, resentment, sadness... Oh how she missed him. He was a disgusting ogre, and an idiot, and a cheating jackass, but he was hers, and Gwen took him from her and so many other things. Not only that, but Gwen stomped on her trust. The thought of all of these things finally made her snap violently at Sierra yet again.

"He likes it?" She echoed, stopping in her tracks, with Sierra stopping with her, who immediately prepared for another argument. "Is that why he hides away from you, then? Is that why he begs you to go away? How does he like it, you idiot?" She said each word with enough venom to make a rattlesnake blush.

The words seemed to have no effect on Sierra as she put her hands on her hips, growing increasingly annoyed with the way Courtney was talking about her and Cody's relationship.

"Uh, DUH! He's just playing hard to get!" She said this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and it only served as to piss Courtney off even more.

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!"

"No, it's true! He does! Cody and I are in love... And you're just jealous!"

A furious blush appeared on Courtney's face. "Jealous!? I am NOT jealous of you! Let's get that straight. I will NEVER be jealous of you!"

Sierra stubbornly shook her head. "No! You are! Why else would you make such a big deal out of this? You obviously like Cody! And you want to steal him form me!"

"W-well I..." Courtney stammered, trying to think up an excuse quickly. "I like him alot!" she blurted out, and instantly regreted it as Sierra gave her a look that said a million hatefilled words.

"I mean as a friend!" She quickly corrected, feeling madly uncomfortable with the look Sierra was giving her.

Courtney sighed and shook her head, looking down at the ground. "Look." She said, looking back up at Sierra, who was glaring at her, but allowed her to speak. "Cody came to me before we got here, and he comforted me and cheered me up, he motivated me to stay in the game, even. I probably wouldn't even be in the game if it weren't for him. I think he's a great friend. And that's it."

Somehow, someway, this finally seemed to satisfy Sierra, and she nodded, a dreamy grin appearing on her face. "He is, isn't he? Ooo! It was so sweet of him to help you like that! Isn't he selfless?"

For once, Courtney agreed with her. "Yeah, he is pretty selfless." Even after all the bad things I've said about him all season long, he still came to me in my time of need, expecting nothing in return. She felt her heart flutter, and it was at that point she realized the truth... She did like Cody.

* * *

Cody had absolutely no idea where he was or what he was doing. Area 51 was huge, and in his depressed stupor, he had walked off deep into the bowels of the facility. Slowly, but surely, he began to retrace his steps through the base, trying desperately to find where he was, or to atleast find another one of his teammates, and fortunately, he seemed to have finally found someone... But unfortunately, it was Gwen.

When the two crossed paths, they stopped dead in their tracks, with Cody giving her a blank expression, and Gwen glaring lowly at him.

 _Great. Looks like she is pissed at me now. I wonder what she's gonna say?_

He watched her stand there and scowl at him, not giving her the satisfaction of getting an emotional response out of him. He continued watching her with his blank expression, feeling slightly annoyed that he was forced to waste time standing here fooling around with her, when he could be finding artifacts and busting them. He had decided after his conversation with... Whatever it was that he had spoken to back in the warehouse, to resume his plans to win the game. And he'd do it by destroying all who crossed his path. No one would ever stand in his way again or stomp on him again.

And that is why he stood there defiantly, waiting for Gwen to speak.

After a few moments of silence between the geek and the goth, she finally spoke up. "So, I have some news for you."

Cody noted her tone: bitterness laced with sadness. It was music to his ears.

"Oh?" He still had no expression as he spoke, "and what would that be?"

Gwen's scowl deepened, as if that were possible, and continued. "I am quitting the show. You can go to Hell. I'm not going to sit here and take this from you or everyone else. I like Duncan. And that's that. I'm sorry you hate me for picking someone else over you, but too bad. Grow up."

Cody tried not to get angry. He tried not to give her the emotional response she probably wanted. But he couldn't help it.

"GROW UP?" He roared, probably a little louder than he needed to, seeing as to how Gwen seemed to visibly cringe, but he didn't care.

"You're going to kiss your friend's boyfriend behind her back, go and try to use ME to get your fucking stupid ass farther in the game, all while acting like an immature brat, and now you're going to try to go and run away from your problems instead of admitting you're wrong? And you are telling ME to grow up?" He yelled, giving her a look of pure hate, and she returned it eagerly.

"I-" She began, but was cut off by Cody.

"No, you know what? Shut the Hell up, Gwen. I don't want to hear it. Go ahead! Quit the show! It doesn't matter if you do or not - because either way, your dumbass is leaving tonight. Good riddance. You and Duncan can go rot in the deepest part of Hell for all I care."

He turned and stormed off, leaving the goth alone once more, who watched him storm off with an angry look, which quickly fell into that of sadness and longing, as she watched her former friend turn his back on her yet again.

* * *

 **Lotta stuff happened this chapter, and I am not satisfied with how it came out! I HATE the way my prose looks. It's so ugly and hard to read, and I feel severely limited in the amount of ways I can describe interaction between two people. I am starting to think I should have practiced writing more before I took on a big project like this story, but I guess this is as good as way as any to learn better writing habits and techniques.**

 **So anyways, I had Alien Cody be the manifestation of what is happening to Cody on the inside, and how Cody was in denial over his true feelings, and now he seems to be back, and he's ready to kick some ass, as you can clearly tell by the last scene of this chapter. Up next is going to be the last Ex Files chapter. I hope.**

 **I guess that's all for this note and chapter. I kinda wish I was writing something a little more... Positive I guess? I'm trying to be a more tolerable, positive, happy person in real life, and making a story like this requires me to get into this judgemental, dark mindframe. The one I'm trying to get away from.**

 **Ah well. If I'm having negative thoughts I guess this is a creative way to get them out.**

 **Till later,**

 **-Twisted**


	6. Chapter 5: Ex Files, finale

After his brief altercation with Gwen, Cody stormed off and somehow managed to find his way back to Sierra and Courtney, with Heather trailing along with them. The trio were standing outside of a large warehouse looking building when Cody stumbled upon them, and upon looking at the extreme size of the building, he wondered how exactly he had missed it on his way through the facility, and then he wondered where the other team was and how they were doing.

 _Team Chris getting the artifact back to Chris is the goal_ he reminded himself.

Truth be told, Cody really wasn't worrying too much about whether or not the other team was completing the challenge or not. The odds were so stacked in his favor that literally nothing could go wrong. All he had to do was just stall. At this point the challenge had been going on for about two or so hours anyway, and he had a feeling it would end really soon. And that was besides the fact: Gwen was dropping out of the game. The only reason to continue taking the plan to sabotage the challenge was just to have a failsafe in the event Gwen changes her mind.

 _Better safe than sorry._

As he stepped up to his teammates, or rather, as he stepped up to Courtney and Sierra, they bothy smiled at him. Heather either didn't notice him or didn't care, as her attention remained on the door to the warehouse, as it seemed that once again, a door was blocking their progress through the facility.

Cody watched the queen bee bang and kick the door in a feeble attempt at opening it as he walked up to his comrades, before turning his attention to Sierra and Courtney.

"Hello." He greeted, sporting a fake grin, complete with his signature gap-tooth. Sierra squirmed slightly and rushed past Courtney, pulling him into a tight embrace.

"EEE! Codykins! Where'd you go? Did you find anything?"

Cody couldn't help but blush as he was pressed into Sierra's chest, and he gulped nervously. "Uh..."

"Alright that's enough." Courtney snapped, pulling Cody, who had now quickly became confused, out of Sierra's grip, who immediately glowered at the CIT.

"Why you-"

Not wanting to watch his teammates battle over stupid things, Cody cleared his throat, pushing aside his teenage perversion, and said something that made everyone turn to look at him, especially Heather.

"Gwen is leaving the game."

They all looked over to him immediately, Sierra with a frozen look of anger on her face, Courtney with a blank expression, and Heather with a curious one.

"What?" The queen bee stepped up to him, and Cody shrugged.

"Yeah, she cornered me and told me how she's just going to drop out of the game. Says she can't take everyone hating her or something. I don't really care. She can go die in a hole if she thinks I care."

Heather got even more curious. "Man, you really do hate her now, don't you?"

Cody suddenly felt kind of nervous at the attention he was getting from Heather. She was the last person he wanted questioning his motives or actions in this game so far. She had the potential of ruining everything he had set in motion and was planning on doing. Which was why she would be going after Gwen.

"Yeah." He said simply, half-faking sadness. "For her to sit here and just... Ruin everything, and then try to leave when it backfires..." He shook his head bitterly. "Absolutely childish." He then sighed. "I just wish it could have gone differently."

"Me too." Courtney said bitterly, before breaking off from the group and walking up to the door. As she did so, what Cody was saying suddenly seemed to register in Sierra's mind, as she once again pulled Cody into a death grip.

As he was crushed once more by his stalker, he noted, with relief, the look of happiness and satisfaction on Heather's face.

 _Smug fool,_ He thought to himself, _You're going next._

Over at the door. Courtney looked at the keypad and tapped it a few times, before looking over to her team. "Heather?"

The queen bee looked at Courtney. "What?" She said, her smile still on her face.

"This door is already unlocked..."

Before Heather could answer, Courtney tapped a button on the keypad, and the door slid open, and Heather immediately growled. "This damn place and its stupid doors..." She turned to Cody and Sierra, the prior being close to passing out from Sierra's titan-grip. "Alright, enough toying around! Get in there and find an artifact! We still have a challenge to win." She commanded, and Sierra complied, releasing Cody, who immediately sunk to his knees heaving.

As his team all entered the base, Cody watched as Sierra seemed to lag behind them.

 _Probably waiting on me..._

Sierra's actions were, as usual, disturbing Cody. But this time for different reasons entirely. It seemed that something was causing Sierra to be even more aggressive with her stalking efforts than usual, and it made Cody wonder if it was the attention he was putting into getting Courtney swayed over to his side. He also noted how Courtney and Sierra were bickering at each other alot more. That would definitely have to be fixed... And he knew how, and once again, Cody felt sick to his stomach as he realized what he would have to do with Sierra in order to make her less of a stone in his plans.

Pushing it all out of his mind for later, Cody quickly ran inside the large building, really eager to finish the challenge.

As he ran through the door, he realized how excited he was to see Gwen take the drop of shame.

 _Drop of shame. How approriate for her._

* * *

It seemed this building was where the bulk of the items or whatever it was that was held at this facility were kept. All different sizes of crates piled the room, stack far up to the tall ceiling. They were literally everywhere, and this building was gigantic.

There were so many crates in this building... But then again, that wasn't really saying much, as literally the only thing Cody had seen on his voyage around this damn place was storage buildings. Seriously, wasn't Area 51 supposed to be some top secret badass research facility? Why was it nothing more than a bunch of warehouses in the middle of a desert?

Perhaps it was all underground? Bah, it didn't matter. Cody focused on the challenge at hand as he finally reached his teammates. Courtney and Sierra stood idly by, seemingly bored, as Heather rooted through a bunch of crates, in search of an artifact. Cody still saw a small smile on Heather's face. It seemed that she was just as excited for Gwen to be leaving as he was.

Cody then glanced at Courtney right as she looked over in his direction, and they both looked at each other, Cody looking dead into her onyx eyes, which were instantly full of... Happiness? She smiled at him, and he returned the smile, unsure of what else to do, and strangely he felt drawn to her, as he once again remembered her place in all of this.

Even though he had chosen to use her for his plan, he still felt kind of bad for it. Courtney was a victim in all of this, no matter how he tried to spin it. Sure, she may have been horrible to him before all this, but... It still sucked that Gwen and Duncan had thrown her into the ground like she was nothing, and now she was going to be thrown away once again when he finished with her...

Then, he did it again: He began to doubt following through with his plans.

He looked away from her, looking down at the floor, pushing all thoughts of doubt out of his mind.

 _No. She is a means to an end._ He told himself. _She will go once her usefulness does..._

Even as he told himself this, he still felt guilty.

* * *

To say Heather was having a good day was an understatement.

As she rooted through the crate, which seemed to be full of nothing but stupid, useless computer parts, she reflected back on her day(or night in this case)so far... It had started out pretty bad, to be sure. It started out with her feet and back hurting, and the boredom of sitting in First Class alone setting in next to the feeling of satisfaction that she was in luxary while the enemy team, including Alejandro, were sitting in a dump, and she had to listen to Sierra praddle on about Cody for a while, and then she had to run across a damn mine field to get into a big storage facility, but now it was shaping up.

Gwen was leaving!

She resisted the urge to cheer into the skies and jump for joy. Her series-long rival was finally getting what was coming to her at last! She was getting kicked out of the game!

That, and she had watched as her enemy had everything torn away from her! Everything, from her best friend, the respect of those around her, to even her dumb little puppy Cody. All had left her. The only thing she had left was that stupid punk Duncan, who would probably get over whatever little first grade crush he had on her not long after she left, and then he'd leave her dumb pasty whore ass too! This was too rich!

She had been beaten down so much she was just going to get up and quit the show! It was fantastic! Never in a million years would Heather think she would see Gwen get so beaten into the mud! And the best part of it all was that she didn't even have to lift a finger herself to bring the destruction upon her - Gwen had brought it upon herself just by being the idiot she was! It was amazing!

She stopped rooting around in the computer crate for a minute as she scanned the tops of the crates in the building, and then her good mood got even better as she saw something sitting on a crate, high up out of sight...

With a mental "Hooray!", she realized that this day would probably be ending very soon, with a trip to First Class.

* * *

"Look!" Heather exclaimed, pointing up to a crate stacked way above the floor. "There's an artifact!"

Cody followed her gaze, and saw that there was, indeed, and artifact sitting up on a crate. So high up off the ground it was that no one had seen it for the time they were there, and he wa kind of surprised seeing as to how close it was to the entrance.

He then felt a little worried - he couldn't get up there and dsetroy the artifact infront of everyone... Or well, he could, but Heather would see it and get EXTREMELY suspicious. He could maybe climb up there and pretend to drop it, but it was pretty likely it would be caught by Heather... No, he needed to think of something quick...

And think of something he did. He smiled to himself. It was genius.

"I'll get it." Cody immediately volunteered, and began his climb up the crates.

As he ascended to the artifact, which appeared to be some type of small cube shaped metallic device with glowing inscriptions on it, he went as slow as he could go without making Heather suspicious. He had never really been the most fit person around on the show, so it wasn't really difficult to feign weakness as he went higher and higher off the ground.

Luckily for him, he wasn't afraid of heights, as he reached the artifact and then took the time to look around.

This building was GIGANTIC. There must have been crates in the THOUSANDS, all in that one building. Again, Cody wondered why exactly all there was in this place were giant storage rooms, but he shrugged.

It was even bigger than it was on the outside... And then he saw them.

Over in the center of the building was Team Chris... And they had in tow... An artifact of there own! Yes! And they were heading right for them! They were going to go win!

"Hurry up!" Heather barked, much to the annoyance of Courtney and Sierra. "Grab it and let's go! First Class is calling!"

Immediately after saying that, Alejandro stepped around the corner and smiled at them. "Indeed it is, my dear Heather... Only it isn't calling you. It is calling us."

Whatever traces of a good mood Heather had on her face quickly vanished, being replaced by a look of furioucity as she glowered at the Latin teen, who simply smiled warmly at her as he walked past her and out the door, his team following behind, alien artifact in tow.

Cody was halfway down the stack when Heather shouted "Come on! They're already on their way back!"

Finally, Cody hopped down to the floor, and nodded at her. "Right, let's go." Heather quickly shot out the door, breaking out into a brisk jog, with Sierra following out behind her, and before Courtney could follow, Cody grabbed her arm.

"Hey Court, listen..."

Courtney looked at him curiously, and he held out the artifact to her.

"My leg's are a little sore. I don't think I can make the run quickly enough... Do you think **you** could take this?" He smiled knowingly at her. "I know you'll take good care of it." For emphasis, he winked at her, and then Courtney smiled at him as she took the artifact out of his hands, seeming to catch on.

"Oh yeah." She looked at it with a mysterious gleam in her eyes.

"I'll take good care of this."

They both chuckled.

* * *

Cody trailed slightly behind Courtney, who trailed behind Heather and Sierra. It didn't really click until halfway across the empty desert stretch that Gwen wasn't with them, and Cody resisted the urge to cheer out into the sky. There was literally no way he would fail now. Nothing would fail at all. Chris would never let them win with a missing teammate, and Team Chris was FAR ahead of them.

As Cody ran, Heather shouted ahead angrily.

"Hurry up losers! Get a move on it!"

Cody ran up beside Courtney, and they jogged side by side, both looking over at each other and shrugging, before Courtney suddenly picked up her pace and began running really quickly, far faster than Cody could run. He watched as she charged ahead, past Heather, but it was too late - Team Chris was already a few feet away from the finishing point, and to add even more odds against them...

Courtney suddenly tripped, sending the alien artifact crashing into the ground, instantly smashing it.

Heather slid to a stop, and screamed angrily into the night sky, pounding the ground with her fists, while Sierra stopped and shrugged. Cody could not be any happier, and he smiled a wild grin as Team Chris reached Chris. Gwen was gone. It was certain.

Courtney rose to her feet as Heather stomped up to her, and innocently smiled at her.

"Whoops." She said through a sly grin, which only served to anger Heather further.

* * *

The teams had made their way back into the plane, with Team Chris walking into the First Class section of the plane, and Cody and the others walking off into the loser section.

Cody still had yet to see Gwen, and frankly, he didn't care. She could either come back or not come back at all. Either way he was going to be victorious. He pulled aside Courtney and Sierra and led them into the same compartment Gwen had led him into to talk to him before the challenge, and once he was sure he was in private, he spoke with his teammates.

"Alright, now... Just incase she doesn't follow through with her promise to drop out..." Cody began, but Courtey nodded knowingly.

"She's still got my vote."

Sierra squeeled happily. "And she has mine! That boyfriend stealer is OUT of here! And she'll not be the ONLY boyfriend stealer leaving..." She glared at Courtney, who immediately furrowed her brow at Sierra. "I AM NOT TRYING TO STEAL CODY! YOU TWO AREN'T EVEN TOGETHER!"

Cody resisted the urge to facepalm, as he realized that he could not let this little feud between Courtney and Sierra go on any longer.

"Sierra, Courtney." He got their attention, as they both looked over at him, their full attention on him.

"Yes Codykins? What is it?"

Cody felt sick to his stomach as he took a deep breath, closing his eyes, mentally preparing for what was going to be coming in just a minute.

After a few moments of silence, he opened his eyes and looked at Sierra.

"Look, Sierra... I know before I said I didn't like you..." His stomach churned with disgust, and he fought back the urge to make a nasty face at her. "But... Now that I'm over Gwen... I think you and I..." He could see Sierra lighting up as he talked, and he felt a mixture of disgust, guilt, and shame. "I think maybe we..."

He expected Sierra to interrupt, but to his surprise, she stayed quiet and allowed him to finish.

"...I think maybe you and I can have a shot."

All Hell was unleashed.

Sierra squeeled with the force of a thousand Suns, squeeling in a pitch so high and loud, that it actually made Cody's head hurt, and before he could have time to regret his decision, Sierra pulled him into a tight, disgusting, vomit inducing kiss, and he had no choice. He had literally no choice. He had to go through with it. Cody returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around her, his hate for her and himself increasing with each second.

Courtney stood idly by with a shocked and confused look on her face as she watched this scene unfold before her, and finally, after horrible suffocating minutes, Sierra broke the kiss, leaving Cody struggling to not projectile vomit all over her.

"...Y... Uh..." Cody was at a loss for words, and once again regretted what he had gotten himself into.

Sierra squeeled happily once again, hopping to her feet and rushing out of the compartment quickly, gushing something about telling her bloggers about what had just happened, and how Coderra was official. This only served to make Cody even more naseous.

* * *

 **-Confessional Cam(C.C)**

 ***Cody looks pale, he is panting heavily, convulsing, he appears to double over and swallow hard, before clearing his throat and looking into the camera***

"O-Okay... So... I'm now... With Sierra..."

 ***He looks even paler and he doubles over, struggling to not throw up, and he gets control of himself as he looked back up into the camera.***

"But it's not because I like her... For some reason, Courtney and Sierra have it out for each other... Sierra seems to think Courtney is trying to steal me away from her, for some dumbass reason, I really don't know. But that's besides the point - Sierra's been ramping her stalking crap far before I began this little game with everyone. I THINK that it's because I keep pushing her away... Hopefully now that we are..."

 ***He clears his throat again, a look of disgust registering on his face, before he continues.***

"...Now that we are an ITEM... She'll give me the distance I need and the control I need..."

 ***He suddenly smiles to himself.***

"Gwen's definitely leaving the game tonight... And then after she's gone, Heather's gone too... And then nothing will stand in my way..."

 ***He pauses for a moment, his smile fading as something suddenly pops into his head.***

"But again... Something about Alejandro... It unnerves me..."

 **End Confessional Cam(C.C)-**

* * *

Cody regained his composure and looked over at Courtney, who stared at him with a blank expression.

He nervously smiled at her. "Eh... Hehe... Not what I had in mind when I was thinking of telling her about this... Sorry you had to see that whole thing."

Silence.

Curiously, he looked at her more closely, and saw that although she had a blank expression, her eyes betrayed her look of calm... He saw in them... Hurt?

Before he could inquire, she quickly bolted out of the compartment, leaving him alone in the bay to reflect on what just happened with Courtney...

* * *

Team Amazon gathered in the elimination room. Gwen had showed up on the plane sometime after they took off, and he really didn't care how or when, because really soon she wasn't going to be there at all. He looked over at Courtney, who had a blank expression on her face, and then at Sierra, who smirked suggestively at him, and he suppressed a gag as he looked over at Gwen, who looked... Drained, tired. And then he felt proud. She was going to leave!

Chris cleared his throat and began the elimination ceremony.

"Ladies and uh..." He looked over at Cody and smirked. "Ladies and gentlemen."

 _Huh. He didn't say I was a girl for once._

"Today we are gathered here to give our goodbyes to one of our own... So without further ado..." Chris scanned each of the team members' faces. Heather sat with her arms crossed, smiling at Gwen, and Cody did the same, smirking at her. This was too good. He had won. And he was going to savor the moment.

"Now... The votes..." Chris pulled out some slips of paper, and cycled through each one. "One vote for Gwen."

Everyone stared at Gwen, who had no reaction to this.

"Two votes for Gwen."

Again, no reaction.

"Three votes for Gwen."

No reaction at all still, she simply shut her eyes.

"And four votes for Gwen..."

Her eyes slowly opened.

"And... Wow, five votes for Gwen. Looks like EVERYONE on the team voted for Gwen. Even you, Gwen."

This time, the goth walked up to the host, and grabbed a parachute, not saying anything. Chris and Gwen exchanged glances, before Chris motioned to the airlock, which Chef had suddenly appeared next to, and slid it open, allowing the cold night air into the room. Gwen then walked over to the door, putting the parachute on her back, and prepared to jump, and Cody eagerly awaited it, watching the scene unfold with bated breath.

Before jumping however, Gwen looked over her shoulder, looking at him, and he saw... A single tear trail from her eye, before she jumped out of the plane into the night sky.

It was then dead silent in the elimination room, save for the sound of the airlock door being slammed shut by Chef.

* * *

 **Hey sorry for lack of updates on this, I was busy all week due to Christmas. That, and some retard SQL injected my site. That was highly irritating.**

 **So this chapter marks the end of the Ex Files, and the beginning of Sierra's involvement in Cody's nightmare. It also marks even more torment of Courtney! Poor Courtney! Anyways, I'm real excited. I have so many directions I can take this, and I'm going to have to go way in depth in my planning for this to get the best outcome. I'm starting to stray a bit from what exaclty I want out of this story. I'm not really sure if I want Cody to just be a dark manipulative jackass who is self-destructive and destroys those around him, or if I want him to redeem himself in someway. I'm not sure. I'm about as clueless as you all are at this point.**

 **I seem to be doing some weird form of discovery writing with this story. For those of you who don't know: Discovery Writing is a technique of writing where basically, your characters control the flow of the story, not you. You simply set the settings and conditions. Your characters practically have a mind of their own and do whatever they want. It sounds strange and crazy, I know, but it's neat.**

 **So anyways this is a long note, and I'm gonna go ahead and sign off. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Oh - one more thing - I am trying to refine my writing style a bit to be a little more engaging. Tell me what you think.**

 **PS: Next update might be a little more longer. I need to learn how to reverse engineer for work.**


	7. Hiatus Notice

**Hey so some problems have come up in my life, and I'm gonna have to take a hiatus from the story. Not sure when I'll be back, but it probably will be a while. I apologize in advance to those who were expecting an update, but stuff happens in real life. Hope to see you soon.**

 **-Twisted**


	8. Coming Clean about this story, and more

It's been a year since I've last updated this story, and the reason for that has been problems ranging from my health (Type 1 Diabetes, Bipolar, Anxiety, etc), and starting schooling and studying really hard as well. I simply have not been able to work on this story at all. Literally at all. For the past year.

I've lost all the notes I had on where to take this story, and honestly, I really hate my own work. This story is a piece of shit.

It is extremely rushed, poorly thought out, very edgy, and almost nonsensical.

I have no plans to continue this.

In it's current shape that is.

I think I might remake this and make it less stupid.

But, here's the thing.

I never actually left this community. I simply migrated to another account.

I'm a weirdo, so instead of telling you faithful folk who have been waiting patiently for this to be updated, I instead decided to just run away to another account, RenegadeBuddhist, or as it's now known, Vogon Widow, where I've so far written two stories which I think are miles better than what I have written on this account. I don't understand why I did that. I should have just been clean with everyone.

It's all a big long complicated thing that I don't really feel like getting into, and it's not that important.

 **What's important is this: When/If I do the rewrite, it will be on the Vogon Widow account.**

So yeah... Sorry about that everyone. I made this wayyyy more complicated than it needed to be.

I would like to thank all of you though for your support and continued reviews. It's really uplifting to see I made a mark on here like that, even with such a bad story. And just to think, if you guys liked this, I can't wait to share a rewritten version which is 100% better. Or I hope it'll be 100% better that is.

To end this long non-chapter, I have this to say as well:

 **If you have any ideas for the rewrite, I am completely open. But don't private message them to this account. Private message them to Vogon Widow.**

 **Thanks, and have a nice day. :3**

 **But hey - there's some more.** I've already said the gist of what is important, but this is more of just a thing for myself. I frustrate myself with the things I do sometimes.

So a big reason I stopped writing this is I have this odd problem where I'll start a big project like a programming thing, or a big story like this, and I'll just sit there and write the living hell out of it for a good few weeks, and then... I'll just stop. I'll just not update anymore. I think it might have something to do with my anxiety or ADHD, but I'm taking pills for that now and I've gotten waaaay better. That, and I think maybe I just have poor scheduling and stuff.

I kind of spontaneously do things when it comes to writing. I don't hardly ever plan my stories out other than just getting a concept, such as "Cody finds out everyone is an asshole", and then just running with it. I think that's part of the problem. I just build up a big thing, and I get overwhelmed and crushed by it, and then run from it. In the case of this story, I ran from my entire account.

Well, from this moment onward, I'm just going to keep doing shit. I'm going to ignore every second thought I have. I'm going to just keep writing. Of course, I won't churn out garbage without thinking, but what I mean is, I'll not listen to the voice that says "I can't keep doing this story. I have lost interest". I'll keep going.

I imagine this isn't really a problem only I have, and I think this is something that plagues a lot of other writers. So hey - if you got this problem, send my Vogon Widow account a PM on how you deal with this shit, because other than what I just posted, I have no idea what else to do. I'm sick of running though and letting people down. I wanna complete my ideas.


End file.
